At the Heart of Every Fairytale
by Luna Moonsurf
Summary: There is a force that binds us all together and bridges gaps between the most unlikely of people. It is found all around us and lies At the Heart of Every Fairytale.
1. Entry

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Kingdom Hearts. This applies to all chapters from here on. I also credit the writer of Ikurx, as it's an awesome story and I somewhat based my reason for them entering the castle on the same reason as the writer of Ikurx; it's nowhere near a rip off of Ikurx, but I'm mentioning it just so I won't be called on it and accused of plagiarism.

I started this fic on Monday, August 17, 2009, so not everything (as in much of the main plot points) here follows canon, but were not too far-fetched at the time and actually ended somewhat accurate; though I have gone back through this story many times (it's one of my favorites to reread, err, I mean, edit and proofread) and have made some changes to accommodate recent canon developments such as only referring to Mickey as a Keyblade _Master_.

Also, please ignore the Cornerstone of Light, I was planning on doing something with it, but I couldn't fit it in.

* * *

><p>The three looked in horror at what had become of Disney Castle, Keyblades hanging limply at their sides. The once pristine palace was now tinged gray under the dark clouds hovering in the sky above it; Heartless covered the entire area surrounding it, even more were undoubtedly within the now tainted grand structure. "H-how could this happen?"<p>

The king shook his head slowly, "I just don't know, Sora."

"But your majesty, in the letter you didn't make it sound so bad." Kairi said in despair. Pluto nudged against her leg in an attempt to comfort her; she smiled weakly and bent down to hug him, "Thanks Pluto." She said petting him and the dog licked her face, pulling a more sincere smile from her.

"It wasn't near this bad when I wrote the letter. I'd only had reports and a bad feeling."

"Is everyone alright?" Sora asked concerned, "Where's Goofy and Donald?"

"They're with Minnie and Daisy at Radiant Garden, but they're not able to join us. I sent them there before I realized the full extent of the damage and it's not going to be safe enough to send them a message for a good while."

"So what's the plan, Mickey?" Riku asked.

"Since when has he called him that?" Sora wondered aloud but the question was ignored.

"We don't know much about the enemy, but I'm pretty sure the throne room's where we'll find the source."

"How do you know?"

"That's where a hidden master control panel for the castle's surveillance system is installed in case of emergencies. The Heartless somehow caused all the vital areas of the circuitry to malfunction before we could detect their presence in the castle and employ necessary precautions."

"Wouldn't electricity magic be the most likely cause?"

"That's the thing, we were sure to make it resilient to that kind of stuff."

"Darkness?"

"Sora," Kairi began, "One of the main purposes for the system was to protect against attacks and only people using darkness would force access to the Castle."

He scratched the back of his head, "Oh yeah, that makes sense. I guess I kinda jump to the darkness conclusion pretty quickly, don't I?"

"Though you're usually right when you do; no, they must have disabled it using a different method. It was only recently installed when I first left and only I know the password."

Riku raised an eyebrow, "And you didn't tell your own wife?"

The king blushed and coughed embarrassedly, "I kinda forgot."

"Then what they use to cause the malfunction?"

"Well," Riku said stretching, "there's only one way to find out."

"I'm guessing that's us just fighting our way through starting from the front door." Kairi said with an eyebrow raised.

"Pretty much."

Sora grinned, "I like that plan."

"That's because it's simple enough for even you to understand." Riku said smirking. Sora childishly stuck his tongue out at him.

"Pluto will stay here in town with this letter in case anyone shows up by chance to help us out." The king handed Kairi an envelope to tie to the dog's collar.

"Okay, let's go!"

— — — — — — —

The image of Sora lifting his Keyblade for emphasis shone from screens located in the previously abandoned Castle Oblivion, "Well, well, well, what have we here?"

"It appears the king had taken early precautions and summoned the Keybladers before we launched our fullscale attack." The reply issued from the speakers of a communication line recently established with the newly conquered Disney Castle, "What action do you suggest?"

The man thought for a second, "All three you say? Tell me a little bit more about them, Rould."

"Well, I might have to double-check with Lea, but I know that Sora is the Keyblade bearer of the Kingdom Key for the Realm of Light and Riku wields both light and darkness-hold on, one moment." There was a pause on the line and some conversation the man couldn't make out, due to the mediocre sound quality of the connection caused by being from a only newly hacked into computer system, followed by an exclamation and the rustling of papers.

A cheeky voice with a constant undertone of insolence flowed through the line, "Heya Evey! How ya doin'? Gone blind yet?"

"Lea? Why are you on instead of Rould? And it's _Even_!"

"Well our dear crumpet is a _teensy_ bit indisposed at the moment, as I just showed him the stuff I found while in the library serving dust duty for pissing off Shorty. Apparently there's more to the Keybladers than we originally thought. It seems we have a Princess of Heart on our hands." Even could just envision that Cheshire Cat grin spanning Lea's face.

"I'll have to consult Braig, for now capture them."

A short scuffle was heard then Rould's voice filtered out from the speakers. "And the mouse?"

"Separate him from them, he's a hindrance—while he might be the Keyblade Master of the Kingdom Key for the Realm of Darkness, he may know how to hack his own castle if he's allowed too close to any equipment. His capture is not worth the risk at the current point but there may be a possibility of another opportunity for his capture and study of his blade presenting itself."

"You got it, Evey!"

The man could almost see the two at the other end shoving each other to regain control of the microphone, this notion was enforced by a grunt and Rould's voice emitting from the speakers, "We'll keep you updated." The line went dead and Even sighed.

Looking back to the screen, the man saw the Keybladers had begun their assault on the castle.

— — — — — — —

The four reached a three-way fork, "Which way should we go?" Riku asked the king.

"Well, fellas, the center route splits again not too far in; so if each of us takes one path, we should reach the throne room at roundabouts the same time as at least one other person. Depending on the number of Heartless, that is."

"I can take the right hall." Kairi offered, "Call me lazy, but I don't feel like deciding on taking a different direction too soon. Could lead to regret, ya know?"

Mickey nodded, "Then I'll take the left. Sora, Riku, you can head straight until the next fork."

"You got it." Despite their confidence, as they split up the four Keybladers had a feeling deep down that all was not as it seemed.

* * *

><p>One should probably have noticed but this story suffers from time to time from NaNoWriMo Syndrome, a condition in which more words than terribly necessary are used, such as 'Keyblade bearer of the Kingdom Key for the Realm of Light' and the like.<p>

I also apologize if Mickey doesn't seem to speak the way he should, I'm not so good at writing accents, just speech patterns like the use or lack of contractions to convey how a person talks. This is also why I left Donald and Goofy out, how in the world was I supposed to write _them_ speaking? Plus, I don't really like to deal with the Disney characters—it feels kinda wrong to mess with the characters that practically defined my childhood. (Plus Ursula has the creeper-ness all covered, have you _seen_ her leading up to and during 'Poor Unfortunate Souls'?)

On a side note, sorry Mickey, Donald, Goofy, but Kairi has the best Disney friend in my opinion. Pluto for the win!


	2. Crescendo

Mickey slashed through the Heartless swarming relentlessly around him; they were little trouble, but there were so many, he didn't have time to think about anything else. He couldn't destroy every single one if he wished to advance to his destination, but it was difficult even with that strategy.

In the moment's respite right before the next wave, it occurred to him that the layout of the castle wasn't flowing properly. That is, he should have gotten to the turn in the hall by now. Scanning his surroundings, he spotted an open doorway. He ran towards it, cutting down any Heartless in his way.

Upon entering, Mickey shut the door quickly before any more of the creatures could slip in, casting a barrier that would hopefully hold while he planned his next move. Looking around, he found himself to be inside one of the libraries.

To be exact, the North Library located on the other side of the castle. Had the rooms been shuffled? The door into here was not the one to the North Library.

Mickey heard a dispirited sigh and spied a dark figure, features obscured by the shadows and the book held in front of its face by long slender fingers that faintly reminded the mouse of Jack Skellington, pure white and with slightly pointed tips; perhaps what Jack's fingers looked like when he was alive. If he was ever alive.

The figure spoke, the voice of a young man in his mid to late teens, "I guess I should have put more effort into the illusion; for you to figure it out so soon; how lazy of me." He lowered his book a minute amount and tilted his head slightly at Mickey, "Then again, it may not have mattered how negligent I was." the young man reached over to the extremely large tome resting on the table beside him and flipped it to a certain page before returning to his reading, "After all, you _are_ the one who built this castle."

Sheets of paper suddenly swarmed around the king, "Ah well, too late to change the past now." The pages consumed the mouse then shot back into the enormous book that lay open at the young man's side before he idly closed it without much thought, his eyes never shifting from the page.

— — — — — — —

Elsewhere, Sora and Riku were in their own predicament. They felt like they'd been fighting for hours non-stop, but it couldn't have been that long as they had parted with Kairi and the king no more than ten minutes ago at most. "We should have reached that fork by now, don'tcha think, Riku?"

"Yeah, I don't know what's up though. We'll just have to keep on moving." The silver-haired teen answered, slicing through another Heartless, "But I'm not sure if splitting up is a good idea with all these Heartless."

"What do you m-hey! Look! The fork's right up ahead!" Sora exclaimed rushing towards it.

"Wait up!" Riku called, running to join the brunet.

The two didn't seem to notice that the creatures they had been previously battling behind them had backed off as they looked confusedly between the two paths. The right had tons of Heartless scurrying around in its hallway; the left had a sparse scattering of them. "What should we do, Riku?"

"Hmm, well the place with the most Heartless is more likely closer to the source of the problem. But Mickey made it sound like these two corridors are the same length and go to the same place just in different directions. Add to that how slowly we've been advancing, the best course of action is if we _both_ go down first path."

"Are you sure?"

"As sure as I _can_ be." He answered heading towards the left.

Sora suddenly grabbed his arm, "Riku, wait!"

"What is it?"

Sora pointed towards a door that was ajar down the right hallway, "Can you see that clock in that room?"

"Yeah, so?"

"And that one on that wall a little ways into the left corridor? And that one inside that room behind us?" he pointed to the other open door leading to a room that was located on the right side a few feet from where they came.

"Is this going anywhere?"

"It is, now look at all three of those clocks."

"Okay…what am I supposed to be…see…ing…?" Riku's eyes had widened at the realization that all three clocks had distinctly different times displayed on their faces.

"What do you think we should do?"

"Probably take the course closest to the time we entered the castle."

"But they're all analog! They could be showing times in the exact opposite of what we need. Let's not forget the possibility that those could be completely different days, or even years! I don't want to end up an old man!"

"Sora! Calm down!"

"Right, sorry."

Riku sighed, "Let's just take the left and hope for the best, okay?"

"Okay…"

— — — — — — —

Lea's ever-present smile widened at the 'hope for the best' line delivered by Riku. "Well, aren't they lucky;" The maroon-haired teen's broad grin then turned into an absolutely Cheshire Cat smile, "as am I." He tore his eyes away from the display and spun his chair around to smirk at Rould, "I believe you owe me something, crumpet."

The strawberry-blond looked incredulously at the screen, "Impossible! How could you have predicted exactly what they'd do and say? Even down to what Riku refers to the king as, no one but his wife calls him by name! There's just no possible way!"

"Do you mean there's no way I could have bet against you and win; or there's no way I could have been smart enough to figure out that Riku would choose to go to the left together for the precise reason he did, but then Sora would notice the clocks, causing Riku to suggest to pick the closest time, Sora lament about dates and analog including the exact words 'I don't want to end up an old man', then Riku finally saying to go left together anyways? Because if you mean the second one, you're entirely right; I bribed Shorty to screw with their heads."

"Why you- that was a fixed bet! I owe you nothing! And how in the worlds did you manage to bribe him?"

"Ah, that may be true," Lea said ignoring the question, "but you were still wrong, and that's what matters. _You_ thought they would split up. At least they took the hard way; they'll be too worn out to stand by the time they get here."

Rould scowled and turned his attention back to the screen where Kairi was slaughtering all the Heartless that came her way, "Did we underestimate her?"

Lea leaned forward towards the monitor; his eyes sparkling with mad glee—as if it was a majestic fireworks display that was enchanting him to such a great extent and not some surveillance video, "No dip, crumpet. Look how close she's gotten," he glanced over to the strawberry-blond, "you gonna send some intervention?"

"No, we should just give her more of a challenge."

— — — — — — —

Kairi's feeling that there _was_ something more to this invasion than a mere rise in the Heartless population was increasing with every sweep of her Keyblade. And that whoever was controlling them seriously needed to rethink their strategy if they wanted to keep her from reaching them. A few Shadows weren't going to stop her, if they were ignoring her in an effort to focus on the others she might as well use it to her advantage. The redhead picked up speed, approaching a turn.

She suddenly stopped, and gave a twisted smile at the materializing Neoshadows, "It seems I've been noticed." This only served to solidify her suspicions that this wasn't an unfortunate infestation and that there was someone out there controlling all these Heartless.

Neoshadows do not appear in Disney Castle.

Even when Maleficent attempted to take over the palace, there was not a single one. Of course, if they thought Neoshadows were going to stop her either, they were severely mistaken. Kairi grinned at their negligence, readied her Keyblade, and attacked.

— — — — — — —

Lea blinked at the screen, "Wow, that's…kinda sexy. If I wasn't already aiming for Arlene I'd totally-"

"We have more pressing matters than your sudden infatuation with the Princess, Lea. The other Keybladers are approaching." Rould turned his chair to face the maroon-haired teen as he brought out a couple decks of cards and began shuffling them together, "And I never knew you were heterosexual."

Lea shrugged, "Bi actually, leaning more towards straight though; I can appreciate beautiful things, be they masculine or feminine; that might have been what threw you off, crumpet."

Rould raised an eyebrow, "'Beautiful things'?"

The teen's smile widened, "Of course, a girl kicking major ass is indeed an awe-inspiring sight."

The man's other eyebrow joined its companion, "Even if it's your own?"

Lea grinned even more broadly, "Especially if it's my own, front row seats to the show."

"Ah, so _that's_ why you're after Arlene. I was beginning to wonder the motive behind the masochism."

The teen sneered but before he could say anything in reply, Riku's exhausted voice was heard through the speakers.

— — — — — — —

"Sora,-hah-do you-hah-think we need-hah-to take-hah-a break?" he gasped out; once he caught his breath enough to properly articulate complete sentences, he continued, "Who knows what we'll find in there, we'll need to be in top condition, right?"

"But we can't stop! What if Kairi or the king is in there?" Sora implored, "We have to help them!"

Riku's resolve evaporated at the innocent face given to him that was begging to be kis-ahem, Riku could not help but give in at Sora's heartfelt request. "Okay, let's go."

"Yay! Thank you!" the brunet gave him a quick hug, unknowingly causing a brief but immaculate blush to span Riku's face, and hurried to open the doors.

They really should have rested before entering.


	3. Capture

Inside they found two people standing in the middle of the room waiting for them, a man with strawberry-blond hair shuffling a deck of cards with Heartless symbols on the back together with another one that had Nobody symbols; next to him was a teen with maroon hair, two brown diamonds tattooed under his eyes, and a Cheshire Cat grin lazily spinning a flaming chakram in each hand. The weapons had an odd—rather dark—red, purple, black, and blue color scheme.

"Luxord? Axel?" Riku and Sora exclaimed simultaneously.

Lea and Rould exchanged glances, "'Luxord'? What kind of name is that? Luck, Lea, your twin has an odd name."

"I don't got a twin, crumpet."

"Nor do I."

"Are you sure? 'Luxord' sounds very you."

"Yes, now that you mention it, I suppose it does have a certain ring to it that suits me. 'Axel' seems to fit you as well."

The maroon-haired teen shrugged, "I guess, better than 'Luxord' at least."

Sora watched their conversation with furrowed eyebrows, "Wait, if they're not those two, then who are they?" Sora asked Riku.

"I don't know; they look kinda like those Organization losers, but not exactly. Hey, while they're distracted let me cast a quick Cura on you."

The moment the spell's telltale glow began, a flaming chakram was flung at them, forcing them to spring apart before the magic's completion. A circle of seven-foot tall cards spun around each of the Keybladers, trapping them in a vortex of blurring Heartless and Nobody symbols rotating at a dizzying pace. The voice of the strawberry-blond was heard from outside the whirling tornado of cards, "It seems our dear resident scholar was correct, these surplus weapons are indeed beneficial."

"Easy for you to say, I only have two arms."

"Is that why you're not using your own?"

"That and if Shorty overhears me complimenting his ideas like before, he'll blush and smile in the way that makes me feel an obligation to fend off people like Lumaria for him, plus it will take Arlene's attention off me and onto teasing him. _Again_."

"But last time it was _I_ who commended him on the creation of such fitting weapons for us and he didn't do that; the reason he reacted in such a way is that you phrase everything positive as a flirtation." The maroon-haired teen childishly stuck his tongue out at him. "I still don't know how he knew what exactly to construct for each of the five of us."

"Beats me; by the way, crumpet, shouldn't we attack the Keybladers now?"

"Ah yes, completely slipped my mind."

Lea chuckled and the ensnared teens lifted their weapons into offensive stances.

Rould materialized inside the twirling walls surrounding Sora, his companion doing the same in Riku's own revolving prison. "Shall we begin?" they said in unison.

— — — — — — —

Kairi causally turned the corner after defeating the Neoshadows and unhurriedly walked towards the door leading to the throne room. She wasn't naïve enough to believe she was home-free, especially this close to her goal. Stopping a few meters away from her destination, the redhead said, "Only the reckless and Sora race down the home stretch and run headlong into a trap."

She could have sworn she distinctly heard a chuckle before the Bookmasters materialized. There were so many, the air was steadily becoming clogged. Rune Masters rose above the many ranks like imposing generals floating amongst their troops. The front lines readied themselves with immense hefted tomes, positioned high over their heads to bring down with deadly accuracy the moment the order is given.

Kairi's eyebrows rose slightly, "Wasn't expecting these," she shrugged and lifted her Keyblade, a chorus of fluttering pages echoed down the halls in response, drawing a wry smile to her lips, "Ah well, it makes no difference."

— — — — — — —

Riku's and Sora's movements were sluggish in comparison to their foes' quick strikes as their opponents were not fresh from battling countless Heartless. Because of this, Lea decided to partake in some casual conversation with Rould, "Hey crumpet, who do you think the others are domin-?"

"Please do not make me contemplate such things. Those thoughts are best reserved for your mind alone."

Lea rolled his eyes and dodged a swipe, "-_dominating_. You _know_ what I meant."

"I'm sure we can expect one of them soon," Rould answered smiling lightly, "I have no doubt a certain someone put forth a considerably tepid and almost certainly shoddy effort to impede our visitors in favour of some great indecipherable tome, unintelligible to all but him."

"Ya never know; Shorty's kinda unpredictable at times. If he finishes early he might help out."

"That's true. If he _does _assist, let us hope he does so'for research purposes', he'll take forever and a da- ah bloody hell!" Rould had taken his attention off Sora for too long and had gotten slashed across the left arm.

"Dude, Rould, you okay?" Lea called over towards the other storm of swiftly swirling cards as he parried a slash from Riku.

"I'm fine, it's merely a scratch; it just took me by surprise."

"What? Shocked you ain't invincible, crumpet?" the maroon-haired teen said as his customary grin widened.

Sora stood staring in startlement at the wound that the strawberry-blond was holding in slight pain, unable the fully comprehend the confusing sight all at once, not even caring that doing so left him wide open for an attack.

Rould's blood was black.

Unfortunately the Keyblader was snapped from his stupor rather violently by a well-placed blow by the man, causing him to be sent flying into the zooming card wall. The collision coupled with the constant onslaught from their enemies and the fatigue he had experienced throughout the battle seemed to push Sora past his limit and he couldn't find the strength within him to pull himself back up onto his feet.

Rould dismissed the cards enclosing them and strolled over to lightly place a foot on the brunet's chest with just enough force to keep him on the ground.

"Hey, what gives?" Lea asked when the border ringing him and his combatant fell as well.

"Sora!" Riku called out upon noticing the brunet's position on the floor. Using this distraction, the maroon-haired teen tackled him to the ground and pinned the Keyblader's neck down by holding the chakram in his right hand to Riku's throat. Though it was thankfully no longer flaming, the other one Lea held in his left was alight in case his captive tried anything.

"Hey Rould,"

"Yes?"

The maroon-haired teen's ever-present smile became wolfish, "It would be a problem if these two are awake, wouldn't it?"

"Indeed it would. What do you suppose we do?"

As Lea's light olive eyes looked down at him, Riku thought he saw them flash gold, "I have an idea…" the chakram holding down the Keyblader's neck dissolved into the air only to be replaced with his captor's hand, "Have a nice nap, Ri-ku." The maroon-haired teen said grinning maliciously as he increased the pressure on his captive's throat. Riku struggled to pry Lea's fingers from his neck as his vision began to darken around the edges.

Rould sighed and cast a Stop on Sora, "Really Lea, just because he's in close contact with the one he's set his heart on doesn't mean you have to take it out on the poor boy." He said removing his foot from the brunet's chest.

"It's still not fair, crumpet." The maroon-haired teen said pouting, releasing the Riku's neck once the Keyblader had ceased his struggling and fallen unconscious, "How'd ya know that was why I did that anyways?"

"Lea, there are times during which I find you are rather quite predictable; it's an occupational hazard, unfortunately. But really, you could have waited; Arlene is being transferred here soon."

"Yeah, wel-"

The door to the throne room opened and the newcomer looked between the two and the lifeless forms on the floor.

"Rould, you're bleeding." The young man commented mildly, he glanced at Lea, "You're not." he fully entered through the side doorway from which he was standing. "Pity." He added as he approached the observation console that was covered in screens.

"Hey!"

"Are you not supposed to be dusting the library shelves? Was that not what we had agreed upon?" the young man inquired as he set his over-sized book down beside the keyboard; opening it, pages shot out and consumed Way to Dawn and the Kingdom Key before returning to the mammoth tome.

"Umm, err…"

"I thought as much." He sat down and began typing; pulling up windows displaying contents the other two didn't even think to imagine were possible to produce from the system.

"So that's how you convinced him." Rould said to the wincing Lea.

"Rould, what is the status report on the events to occur here?"

"But don't the cameras record?"

"Yes, however, none were placed in this room. Something I am sure Lea is aware and thankful of as he no doubt plays games when he possesses far more productive affairs to attend to."

"You can't prove a thing, Shorty!"

Without taking his eyes off the screen, the young man absently reached over to the keyboard in front of where the maroon-haired teen had been stationed at and tapped one key with a single bone-white finger, restoring a minimized window before returning to work.

"You were playing Final Fantasy XIV Online while I was actually doing something?"

"Not the entire time!"

"I do not believe my Bookmasters will last very much longer." The young man thought aloud. He turned around in his chair and looked down at the maroon-haired teen with an eyebrow raised, "I suggest you remove yourself from Riku's person, Lea, or I shall have no choice but to accuse you of somnophilia."

"What's that?"

"I would think you at least competent enough to reason that out for yourself."

There was a momentary pause before the other two figured it out simultaneously.

"Bloody hell!"

"That's just plain wrong!" Lea exclaimed with a disgusted face as he sprung a good distance from the unconscious silver-haired teen.

The young man had a small devious smile on his face as he turned back to the screen, "Concurrent understanding can occasionally be vastly amusing."

The main door to the throne room suddenly swung open to reveal Kairi.

A conspicuously _not_ fatigued Kairi. A few ink-splotches scattered here and there, but that was really only it.

"Ya could have warned us." the maroon-haired teen shot at the one sitting at the console.

He was answered merely with a shrug and a "Deal with it on your own, you two."

Rould sighed and rubbed his forehead with his right hand, "So be it."

The redhead looked confusedly between the strawberry-blond and the maroon-haired teen, "Luxor-?" she spotted the wound on Rould's left arm and realized what the other two Keybladers did not in the heat of their battle and exhaustion. Kairi narrowed her eyes at them, "You're Heartless, aren't you?"

The man looked up, the teen gaped slightly, and the young man paused in his typing.

All three blinked.

"Pardon?"

"Say what?"

"Heheh, clever." The young man said softly, smiling and resuming his work. She had come to that conclusion with rather unexpected speed; it had certainly come as quite the surprise. She had originally been the one deemed the lowest threat, but it appears a reassessment of her abilities must be conducted as soon as the possibility arises.

Kairi's eyes fell onto her friends and her grip on her Keyblade tightened. With gritted teeth she turned a calculating gaze to the Heartless.

Lea smirked, "You can wipe that look off your face, you're outnumbered and," he strolled towards Sora and crouched down next to him, holding a chakram against the unconscious brunet's neck, "we have your buddies." The young man had snickered when the maroon-haired teen had gone over to Sora when Riku was much closer.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just off us instead of threatening them so I won't fight?"

"The thing is, deary, that we rather not have you all dead. Though I doubt Even would be overly vexed if we only have two Keybladers." Rould was, of course, bluffing. The wielder of the Kingdom Key for the Realm of Light, a Keyblader who wields both darkness and light, and a Princess of Heart; if they slay even a single one of these three, the scientist would use them to give Castle Oblivion a nice thick coat of black, and not with paint.

Lea inwardly sulked at the realization that he'd have to leave this up to their self-proclaimed 'master of the rhetoric'. Damn Shorty, he knew there would be problems—that's why he told them to deal with it on their own, so if they screwed up, he wouldn't have to claim any responsibility in the failure.

Even rarely gets pissed enough to use that glare that Braig swears up, down, and in a loop freezes whatever it comes in contact with; though the platinum-blond didn't seem like it over the communication line, he wanted the Keybladers badly, and he _will_ get 'overly vexed' if they don't bring in all three. Lea suppressed a slight shiver _barely_; he still remembered when Braig entered the room he was in, dragging a newly-frozen Aqua Jester in his wake.

"_What the hell?"_

_The gray-haired man smiled dryly as he pulled an ice sculpture with a loud scrapping sound across the floor, "Angelfish pushed Even a _lit-_tle too far, wrecked his lab." Lea blinked, turns out that ice sculpture was a fellow Heartless with a terrified expression, "I mean, he just __**looked**__ at him! Anyways, I need you to unfreeze Angelfish." Braig said setting the poor former court jester in front of the maroon-haired teen._

"_Ouch. Okay, I'll do it." He reached out with his right hand as he heated it up._

_Only to have his wrist clamped onto with extremely painful tightness, "If his bodily fluids heat up faster than the surrounding cell tissue he shall be little more than sludge with a rubbery outer casing." The resident, currently quite menacing, scholar twisted Lea's hand away from his best friend, extracting a sharp cry from the maroon-haired teen, "If you harm him, Braig and myself will possess no hesitations in exacting eternal torment upon you, as well as recruit assistance from any willing."_

_Lea gulped, "I'll just go find a fireplace to warm him in front of."_

Kairi looked between Rould, Sora, Riku, and Lea. She sighed dejectedly, "What do I have to do?" This sucked; when her friends needed _her_ to rescue them she couldn't do a thing.

The young man at the console flipped open the titanic book beside his keyboard distractedly and absently waved his hand in her general direction. Many sheets of paper flew out to spiral around her, snatching Destiny's Embrace right from her hand.

Soon the dizzying whirling, twirling, and swirling of the maelstrom combined with the strange drowsing power that seemed to emit from the very words themselves began to affect her. The redhead's eyes started to glaze over and Kairi swayed on her feet before the pages retreated and she fell to the ground.

The young man closed his cyclopean tome and stood, exiting out of whatever he'd been working on, "I manipulated the system so it will work properly for you, Rould."

"I was wondering what you were doing over there."

The scholar nodded, "Yes, I felt I should do something in return for allowing me to take advantage of this unexpected opportunity for a more detailed study of the Keyblade. The Disney Castle's internal system should be secure for you to use regularly without needing to fret over any of the former residents gaining unauthorized access, or at worst, doing so without your knowledge." He gathered his gigantic book up into his arms, "Whatever the case may be, I'm fairly positive you will be able to run it efficiently, even Lea could operate it with ease."

"Hey! What's that's supposed to mean?"

The young man got a half-smirk on his face as he informed the two, "I also uninstalled the Final Fantasy XIV Online."

"NOOO!" the maroon-haired teen cried dramatically.

Rould shook his head as he rolled his eyes, "Why do I even associate with you?"

The young man continued, "You shall have to wait until I arrive at Castle Oblivion before it is finalized, but expect to receive visual feed in accompaniment to the audio transmissions from the communication line between our bases."

"What of the king?" the strawberry-blond asked.

"I trapped him my lexicon but released him outside by the strangest orange dog. I still have his Keyblade; I just did not want to risk any unfortunate occurrences should he escape from the book's pages." The scholar began to leave, "Notify me when everything is in order, or at least enough in order that I can leave in good confidence that the place won't crumble to the ground the moment I depart." he paused in the doorway and reminded the older man, "You're still bleeding, Rould." Then he exited.

Lea stood from the crouched position he'd taken when threatening Sora, "I'll do it, crumpet, you used a ton of magic and I can't annoy the hell outta ya if you're too tired to be annoyed the hell out of."

"You really are too kind." Rould said with heavy sarcasm as the maroon-haired teen quite theatrically cast a Cure on him, dramatic hand flourishes and all, "Truly, what did I _ever_ do to deserve a friend like you? I don't recall relieving myself upon any temple grounds and I'm reasonably certain I would remember smashing any holy statues."

The teen shrugged, "Maybe it's the reason you became a Heartless that did it. Letting your heart be consumed by darkness."

The strawberry-blond raised an eyebrow, "That line's not you."

"Well, had to try it once, you know." He replied with a roguish grin, "But it makes me sound totally deep and profound, right crumpet?"

Rould sighed exasperatedly, "You're impossible."

* * *

><p>I know, Axel's and Luxord's Heartless being friends isn't exactly something you see every day, but remember, these two lived in different environments than their Nobodies.<p>

My sister accused me of gore upon reading about the ink-splotches; I mention them again later to spite her.


	4. Revelations

"Have you placed them in their cells?"

"Yes; there is a chance the Kingdom Keybearer was somewhat aware of his surroundings when we did so, but there were no issues." The young man reported.

Suddenly someone with light brown hair and clothed in jesterly attire that consisted of various shades of vibrant blues appeared from nowhere and glomp-tackled him, "Bestest buddy! I missed you! I'm so glad Arlene is leaving so that you could come and stay here!"

The one the young man had been speaking to laughed, "Yeah, you're the only straight guy in the castle now. You should have seen how Angelfish's eyes lit up when I told him we were transferring you back to this base. Absolutely fu-mol-kissable."

"I do not believe I require details." The scholar stated drily. He then stood after extracting his friend from on top of him and turned to the gray-haired man, "I need to complete the process of modifying the link with Disney Castle to support video transmission."

"You got it, Even's right down the hall."

The young man nodded and left towards the dimly lit surveillance room.

— — — — — — —

The platinum-blond scientist was inside conversing over the intercom communication line with the two stationed at Disney Castle, "The sound quality has greatly improved. So am I correct in assuming everything is in order on your side?"

"Yes, we're still going through it all, but we have the essentials up and running. Within the next few hours we may have the entire system working smoothly."

"That's good to hear."

"All that's left is-Lea! What in luck's name are you doing?"

"Heheh, I'm besting Shorty; he thought he could keep me from my Final Fantasy, but he was wrong."

The young man walked up to the console, and starting typing something; Even glanced confusedly at him until he pointed to a previously unused screen. A few moments later Rould's face appeared on the display. The strawberry-blond looked really quite unnerved at the sight of the screen illuminating the young man's features with sinister light and the disquieting, edging on forebodingly malevolent, smile Rould always knew the scholar was capable of possessing.

The man gulped and said a little apprehensively, "Lea…"

"Hold on, I'm almost done."

The young man began typing once more.

"Lea, I really think you should-"

"Crap! What happened? It just suddenly disappeared!" the maroon-haired teen slumped back into his chair before turning to his friend, "So, what did you want, crumpet?"

Rould just sighed, putting his head in his hand and gestured towards the screen.

"What is i-oh…ah hell."

"Thank you Lea, for pointing out that flaw in my programming of the system. I shall remember that for later so I do not repeat my error."

"You deleted it, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"And, don't tell me, corrupted the game so I can't try to install it again."

"That is correct."

"Damn."

The young man straightened from his position leaning over the keyboard. "I'm going to check on the Keybladers, the Princess is most likely awake by now."

He made to leave but was stopped when Lea called him back, "Hey wait a sec, Shorty," the young man turned to look questioningly at the screen, "don't overwork yourself, okay? Half my annoyance arsenal doesn't work on crumpet."

The scholar raised an eyebrow, "Is that supposed to _keep_ me from overworking myself?"

"What I believe dear Lea here is trying to say is that you don't allow anytime for yourself. You need to relax once in a while." Rould clarified.

"Yeah, or you'll end up stuffy and Lumaria-bait like Evey over ther-"

Even pressed the button that disconnected them from Disney Castle; he turned his chair to face the young man, "I agree with those two. If you do all the jobs, there will be none left to keep people like Lumaria and your jester friend busy and out of my hair."

"You're such a caring person." The scholar remarked sarcastically as he walked towards the doorway.

Even shrugged, "I'm honest." He said as he turned his seat back around.

"If you're so adamant, then I shall be certain to ensure my 'jester friend' plenty of free time." The young man replied exiting the room, leaving the platinum-blond to mutter darkly under his breath something that sounded a good deal like 'insolent brat'.

— — — — — — —

The young man had a half-smirk on his face that caused a deep scowl to adorn the redhead's normally kind features as she glowered from behind the bars of the cell which she sat in the dim corner of, with her arms crossed and her eyes piercing. "Just because I recognize a situation where rebellion is counter-productive doesn't mean I won't run you through the first beneficial chance I get."

The young man laughed mockingly, "Ah yes, that delightful little Keyblade of yours—Destiny's Embrace, was it?—I have no doubt." His infuriating smile at her remained firmly in place, "My apologies, your highness, but as superb of a weapon it may be, I'm afraid I am on a rather 'look, but don't touch' policy with such things. Pity though, it would be fascinating to analyze in closer detail." He said with slight disappointment at being denied such a unique opportunity.

The young man then smiled mischievously at her, "It's nearly as exquisite as its wielder."

Her scowl deepened, "Don't you have better things to do than flirt with prisoners?"

He shrugged and that smirk of his was beginning to incense her to no end, "Why not? We are physically the same age and I much prefer your reactions to my words than the mere presence of many of the others. Besides," that completely irritating smile widened, "it cannot been denied you are both attractive in appearance and absolutely intriguing in personality."

She raised an eyebrow "'Why not?' Ignoring the fact that—judging how you _stated_ those compliments—you're merely doing this out of boredom," The young man's royal purple eyes sparkled with amusement, "you're technically not even human."

"Oh? I have corporal anthropoidal form-"

"All of your kind have a physical shape, yours is just more humanoid. You're not made of true flesh and blood."

The young man replied in a tone that was edging on patronizing but possessed a slight passionate undertone, however his eyes shone with a peculiar light that made him seem all the more alive. "But what we are made-up of makes us all the more human! The heart is the core of a human's very being. That fool dubbed us 'Heartless', but he was utterly incorrect. We _are_ the heart. We are what makes one human, your highness, we are a human purified to its very essence of existence."

"A being of refined taint, purged of flaws like innocence." She rephrased. Though, given the zeal in his voice, she had half-expected him to spin around, or at least use animated hand gestures.

"Now, now, your highness, I believe you mistake the subject of my reasoning. I speak of the heart. Light encased densely in darkness—that is what a so-called 'Heartless' actually is; as is too, the true identity of a heart."

"Pretty detailed for what's wrong, or at very best, vastly inaccurate."

He shook his head in mock sadness then said with his annoying smirk back in place, "Is there no pleasing you, your highness?"

"I have a name, you know."

"I suppose we never did introduce ourselves, did we? Would you like to do so now, your highness?"

"If it will stop you calling me that."

He laughed, "We shall see, your highness."

The redhead sighed exasperatedly, "My name is Kairi. I don't how you found out about that, but stop calling me 'your highness'; I thought I was through with being called that." She muttered the last part darkly under her breath.

The young man blinked, "'Kairi'?" a thoughtful expression fell across his face, "Kairi the Princess of Heart…hmm, interesting…" he then looked up at her, tilting his head a little to the side, causing his deep navy hair to fall even more in front of his left eye, "Why are you averse to being addressed to as 'your highness'?"

She scowled, "If you must know, a few of those Organization losers referred to me like that. I think it may have been some kind of in-joke or whatever. Though you probably don't have any idea what I'm talking about."

"On the contrary, in fact you just reminded me of something I have to do." He lifted his hands, palms facing up; Kairi gave him a weird look until two very, very big books appeared in each of them. The one in his right hand had what looked like three white interlocking Nobody symbols on its black cover and the one in his left had the same except with Heartless symbols and its cover was one of the darkest purples she had ever seen.

It was upon this contrast of the two darkly-shaded leviathan tomes and the skin tone of his hand that she took note of the unearthly pale complexion completely devoid of all color that he possessed.

He sat down cross-legged on the ground and opened the cosmic-dimensioned books, placing them in front of him. Kairi's curiosity got the better of her and she cautiously made her way to the front of the cell to peek through the bars. The young man extracted from his pocket several sheets of paper and spread them out in front of him; from his other pocket he pulled out an extremely small object that she recognized, "Hey! That's Jiminy's Journal!"

He looked up and smile spread across his face. "And Riku's D-Report and the Secret Reports and the Ansem Reports and the _Secret Ansem_ Reports and the late Zexion's Lexicon."

"How did you get a hold of those anyways?"

"I have my ways." He turned his attention back onto the documents and behemoth books in front of him. She blinked when he summoned a quill pen and started copying down the contents of the papers into presumably his own voluminous lexicon.

"You're the one who summoned that literal army of Heartless and sicced it on me."

"Indeed I am; and I must commend you on your strategy, princess," he said without looking up, the redhead gave him a brief glare but decided 'princess' was an improvement to 'your highness', "Truly noteworthy—even if it was surprising ruthless for a heart so pure—I gained a lot of insight upon watching you battle them. I'm sure I shall learn even more from further study of the recordings."

"It's going to take forever to get these ink stains out, ya know."

He only chuckled lightly at this with a sideways smirk.

"Who _are_ you?"

"My apologies, princess, my name is Ienzo." His smile grew, "Though I assume your question was either rhetorical or not referring to what I am known as."

"Both."

"Ah." Ienzo's writing speed was amazing, even if his handwriting was most likely shorthand and entirely illegible to anyone but himself, maybe not even that.

"Where did you learn to do that so quickly?"

"Being the youngest of the apprentices I had the least amount of time with the lab reports. Either the others got impatient and literally snatched it from me or I was the last to get a hold of it before we had to leave. My speed only increased with the enhancements I gained when becoming a Heartless." Ienzo's hand began to slow, and then came to a complete stop as he stared at what he had been copying from.

"What is it?"

He looked up at her, "What did the Kingdom Keyblade wielder's Heartless look like?"

"One of those cute little Shadows." When he looked distinctly shocked she asked, "Why?"

He furrowed his eyebrows, "It's just that…one with a heart as strong as his, he should have turned into a humanoid Heartless like myself. Unless…" Ienzo got a sideways-grin on his face, "Of course."

"What?"

He glanced up at her with a smile, "Your knight in shining armor did not have enough darkness to become anything _but_ a Shadow; probably just that righteous anger at Xehanort's Heartless."

"Righteous anger is darkness?" she asked sitting down too.

"Well, no, now that I think about," he looked towards the ceiling in contemplation, "it probably does not completely fit into that particular category. But his hatred _for_ the darkness might have been what did the trick. Rather ironic, darkness fashioned from negative sentiments towards darkness."

"Why are you being so nice?" Kairi inquired out of nowhere.

"What do mean?" Ienzo asked returning to his work.

"Well, aren't you supposed to be like malicious and cruel? Or at least a pain in the ass like earlier?"

Ienzo's quill slipped at her words, and he stared at her in slight alarm, "Language, princess; who have you been talking to? Last time I checked, sophisticated ladies do not curse."

"Isn't one of the 'others' you mentioned earlier a female…that curses."

"Arlene does not count; she is certainly not a lady and by _no_ stretch of imagination, is she sophisticated in the least." The Heartless's expression twisted into theatrical horror, "You haven't been around her, have you?"

Kairi giggled, "No, I just heard a girl's voice swearing from the outside."

He relaxed in exaggerated relief, "Good." He grinned and went back to his writing, "To the jubilation of many, she has been reassigned to my former post at Disney Castle, thus removing Arlene from the immediate presence she previously employed to her advantage to antagonize me to absolutely no end."

"You didn't answer my question by the way."

"Not all are like the 'Ansem' you met." He couldn't fully suppress a snicker.

Kairi gave him a questioning look, "What's so funny?"

"Oh, it's just Heartless like us do not really change much personality wise from our originals." He responded grinning, "I always knew there was something more to his signing of the reports under the king's name than secrecy."

"So you were like this before? Then what was with that snarky bastard act?"

Ienzo's quill slipped again and he once more stared somewhat perturbed at her. "Dear luck, princess! I had no idea I irritated you that badly!"

She laughed and the Heartless continued, "I acted that way back then to guard my heart against betrayal."

"Why did you feel the need to?"

Kairi realized how personal a question this was and regretted prying, if only because of her nature; however Ienzo did not seem to notice, "I was tormented for my size and dialect before I studied as an apprentice. Someone I trusted deserted me at my moment of most dire need." His eyebrows drew together slightly, "I cannot even recall his face; perhaps I blocked it from my memory." His face then morphed into a light scowl. "But the pain I felt when it became evident I had been beguiled for mere amusement; that is something I shall never forget. I would have surely suffered grave injuries if Braig had not played target practice with my assailants."

His eyes were somewhat glazed over and his mind seemed elsewhere; as though once started, he could not stop, "I'm reasonably confident that I was at first just a reason for him to shoot at people without getting in trouble. But I believe it was around the time he began slinging his arm around my shoulders and calling me 'Ienzo-dono' for that one time in the library that Braig broke through my façade; the others soon after." He shook his head to clear it then returned to his work, acting as if nothing had been said.

The redhead was silent for a time, taking this all in. Why would this Heartless speak of his past? He didn't even seem to realize he was doing so to someone that he was mocking earlier. Apparently they weren't lying when they said she could endear herself to almost everyone she meets. But somehow, that didn't seem the right conclusion to her. Maybe it was the whole 'letting it out to someone who doesn't know you and has a bias opinion' thing. But that didn't seem right either.

Kairi suddenly realized the young man had never truly answered her on the being nice thing.

Ienzo gently set down his quill and looked from the loose leaf reports to his own giant lexicon. He shrugged and thought aloud, "Might as well," he stuck the sheets between the gargantuan book's pages at intervals and then closed it.

She tilted her head, what was he doing? He put a ghost-white hand on the cover and muttered some words. The astronomical lexicon glowed slightly with an almost eerie dark-colored light.

Ienzo opened it, lifted it up by the spine, and rather unceremoniously shook out the pages, causing the papers to flutter down to the ground. The Heartless flipped through the bulky tome and a smile appeared on his face. This prompted Kairi to ask, "What is it?"

He grinned, "I copied the contents of those reports into my lexicon without having to write them in!"

She raised an eyebrow, "Rather excited, aren't we?"

"This is the first time one of my theories was correct that I could take credit for. But I still need to copy from that cricket's journal and your dark prince's D-Report."

She smiled and giggled, "'Dark prince'? That's a first." The Keyblader tilted her head slightly at him, "If you were like this before you became a Heartless, how did you ever have enough darkness to take human form?"

Kairi was starting to regret her naturally avid curiosity when Ienzo's face sobered and he looked down, "There are many kinds of darkness, princess." He answered softly.

The redhead wasn't sure, but his voice held what sounded a lot like a pained undertone, "As many as there are Heartless. As clichéd as it sounds, darkness is as vast and varied as light. Some like Xehanort lusted for power; others like Arlene and Braig wanted the freedom to do things not generally accepted by society, such as regularly targeting innocent bystanders."

A weak smile pulled at his lips, though it did not last long, "But many had a mixture. Take your dark prince for example; he had a large amount of potential darkness, while others have one or maybe two more prominent types of darkness, he had several. The burning desire to leave the island, the hate of not being able to do anything about it, the intense jealousy directed at your knight, those are just a few."

Unfortunately for him, this time Kairi wasn't to be evaded, "But that doesn't explain _your_ darkness."

"I-I" he looked at her in a way that made her wonder if there was some truth to his 'Heartless _are_ hearts' idea. Ienzo appeared almost…vulnerable; similar to an unprotected heart whose barriers were let down in unfamiliar territory; untold secrets and deeply buried memories laid open for anyone to see. For her to see.

"The darkness that invaded my heart was fear."

If what he said was true, if Heartless really _are_ made-up of the purified core of a human's existence, the state he was in made his very essence fragile. It would be easy to break him; his heart, thus himself, would fragment at the faintest touch. The way he was right now, it would only take one callous word from her and it would destroy him.

Ienzo was Kairi's to shatter if she wished.

But she didn't and he continued, still in his almost-trance. "Aeleus locked me in one of the labs while he fought off the Heartless in front of the door. I remember seeing black creatures leaking in from the crack under the door as I slipped through the window."

The young man shook his head to clear his thoughts again, "The point is I didn't escape." He leaned over further than what was strictly necessary to continue his copying. His barriers were back in place once more, but only barely.

Ienzo very nearly didn't catch himself before he told her about the rest. About how, as a last ditch effort, he had attempted to use the spell he'd only had in crude theory—in desperate need of fixing before the very notion of presenting it to the others could even be considered. About how he had created it in hopes of correcting his mistake of suggesting the lab by striving to conceive a method that could prevent person from becoming a Heartless during an experiment, or even reverse the process.

Ienzo had let her assume that there had been more black creatures outside under the window he clambered through. He had been on the verge of letting it slip that he _had_ made it out and had even gotten it all the way to the Castle Gates. That he wasn't the first to arrive there. That he hadn't realized until too late the newly-transformed Heartless Xehanort had seen him as well.

His grip on his quill had tightened and he had stopped writing altogether. The young man's mind was flooded with long suppressed memories of false bravado and unforgiving stone wall pressing against his back. Unbidden they flowed and he was trapped once more.

_Xehanort slowly ran his fingers down Ienzo's cheek, lifting the boy's chin, "Had enough? Will you finally submit to darkness?" Ienzo was breathing heavily, barely able to stay on his feet, as he looked up at the man with traces of hopelessness in his steel-gray eyes. Nevertheless, the boy shook his head with a defiant glower that was weaker than the last one. Xehanort again pressed his hand over Ienzo's heart, causing his victim to cry out. The boy fell to his knees; he was beginning to tremble, "You're the last one, Ienzo. All the others are gone. Will you finally submit to darkness?" Ienzo bowed his head-_

"Are you okay? You're shaking." Kairi said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. When Ienzo lifted his head the redhead couldn't help but think for a moment that she was looking into the eyes of a lost child, scared and confused, unable to decide where he should go or what he should do; before the emotion disappeared to be replaced by curiosity in its stead.

"Why are you so kind to me, princess? I am your enemy. You should be thinking of how to use this to your advantage, or take this time while I'm distracted to glance around for an escape route, not comfort me." He got a thoughtful look on his face, "Unless you're trying to gain my trust. But it seems too genuine."

Kairi shrugged, "It's in my personality I guess." She smiled mischievously, "Even if it's sorely tempting to try to seduce you, Ienzo." The Heartless's face literally darkened, his white cheeks were rapidly turning gray, swiftly approaching an immaculate shade of black.

Kairi couldn't suppress a giggle when she realized that Ienzo was blushing.

"Yes, your personality…of course…" he mumbled embarrassedly, "how could I forget…the Princesses of Heart have untainted hearts…" Then his eyebrows drew together slightly and he got a confused expression across his pale features, "But then why…?"

Ienzo turned his gaze to her hand on his shoulder, and with hesitation his placed his own hand over hers, "It doesn't hurt." Catching Kairi's questioning look, he elaborated, "I, as a Heartless, should be more affected by your touch. We're supposed to be opposites, a being born of the light and a being born of the darkness."

Ienzo seemed to debate something before slowly moving Kairi's hand to rest over his chest. She was surprised to feel steady heartbeats under her palm. "Odd." He said distractedly under his breath and moved closer to the bars, "Can you feel anything when I do this?" He carefully reached out to lightly place the long white fingers of his free hand where her heart was located.

She blinked, somewhat puzzled, "No, nothing out of the ordinary."

"I see." Ienzo turned his head back down towards where his hand laid atop her own, causing his hair to cascade down in front of his face, concealing his eyes and making the only thing visible be the cynical smile that unfurled across his lips when he tightened his grip on her hand.

"You are far too trusting, princess."

Kairi started when Ienzo's hand sunk into her chest. "I strongly advise against moving, I highly doubt you want me to _slip_." The Heartless said mockingly. The redhead fought the urge to squirm when she felt what could only be describe as slender fingers delicately trailing along something within her. "Good," she could hear the malicious smirk in his voice, "now stay just like that, princess, we wouldn't want any _accidents_."

He moved the hand that was holding hers against his chest to pull his massive lexicon and quill over, beginning to scribble down things that Kairi couldn't depict due to his illegible handwriting. Plus, it was rather difficult to concentrate when Ienzo's fingers continued their fluid path spanning the surface of what she realized was her inner heart.

Why was she even vaguely surprised? Ienzo's a Heartless and Heartless are just that, heartless. Of course she was going to be exploited, why should she expect different? Well, that's what she gets for trying to befriend a Heartless. She had to hand it to him though, that was some excellent acting he did earlier. Ienzo had played his part so very well, he'd sincerely seemed benevolent and the kindness and vulnerability he had showed her had truly appeared real…Too real.

Her musings were interrupted before she could continue down that train of thought. His fingers started to curl around her heart, Kairi decided she might as well ask before he crushed it, "How can I still be conscious while you're doing this?" He didn't answer but she noticed some strange black liquid that was gathering at the corner of his mouth and beginning to lazily trickle down from his lips. Was that blood? Why was he bleeding?

The feeling of her heart being released from his grasp confused her and she only grew more puzzled when Ienzo slowly retracted his hand. He stood and walked off somewhere that was _just_ within earshot.

Kairi's eyes widened when she heard a long string of curses that were most likely in more languages than she knew existed. Soon he returned muttering darkly under his breath as he finished up the healing of his hand.

"You still have blood on your lips." She observed moving back to her corner.

"I do?" he wiped the edge of his mouth, "Ah, thank you, princess."

Ienzo gathered up the pages and let the elephantine lexicons disperse back into darkness. Before she could ask the question nagging her, he answered it cryptically, "I am a master of illusions." He then exited up the stairs.

"That doesn't help at all!" she called after him, but received no response.


	5. Descriptions of Character

Ienzo walked back to the room that served as his library to put up the papers. He placed the tiny journal and the partially copied D-Report on a table for convenient access when he needed them later. Behind him he heard someone walk in, "Hi Zoey!" Ienzo turned to see his best friend entering the room.

"What brings you here?"

"I saw you with the Keyblader on the cameras."

The scholar raised an eyebrow, "And what brought you to the surveillance room? Even is less than fond of you. Plus that place will kill your eyes."

"That's not important!" his friend said, nearly flailing his arms, "What matters is how you acted!"

"I didn't want her to put too much trust in any of the others; you may have forgotten, but Lumaria is capable of being pleasant when he puts forth a genuine effort to be so and no one in her position should let her guard down so much as an _infinitesimal_ amount around our dear resident scientist."

"And to distance yourself from her. You didn't warn the other Keybladers, you're worried about her getting hurt because she wasn't cautious about the rest of us; _and_ if she doesn't trust you, you won't risk becoming too attached to her."

"There's not one person I'd wish carelessness upon when dealing with Even and the other Keybladers are not as trusting as her." Ienzo fell silent for a moment then looked down before continuing softly, "I don't want to be forsaken again. Once she gets free, I will simply become part of a memory; a mere small section in the grand tapestry of the tale woven at this castle."

"Basically you want her to like you, but don't want to be shattered. Zoey, are you worried about what will happen if you're betrayed? You said it yourself, we _are_ hearts. You think a heartbreaking experience will break yourself completely, don't you?" the former jester said gently, walking closer to his best friend.

Ienzo nodded, "Yes, the people that truly mean something to me I cherish deeply, even if I do not fully show it. If I lose one in such a painful manner as the sole outcome of her betraying me…"

"Cheer up, Zoey! Don't be so fatalistic, pessimistic, cynical-istic, whatever-istic! It makes you look emo. Last time you were deceived you recovered; take a chance and see what happens. You never know unless you try." He grabbed Ienzo's hand with the intention of dragging him to where she was located, "Come on! Let's go have you make up with her!"

Ienzo didn't move; the former jester sighed, "Listen, I noticed at one point you were in a position where she could had broken your heart into billions of little pieces, and I know she saw it to-"

The scholar pulled his hand free, "Don't you get it? She's a Keyblader and a Princess of Heart, I'm a Heartless. We're not supposed to get along."

His friend pouted and crossed his arms, "Well, _I'm_ going to go meet her. You can never have too many friends!" he waved goodbye and went to go meet the female captive. Besides, he a very important question to ask her.

— — — — — — —

"Okay, the blue one or the black one, which one's better?"

Kairi blinked. This person with light brown hair that looked in his mid-teens, around the same age as Ienzo, had bounced in here to inquire with a completely serious expression, which of the sitars presented to her in his hands was 'better'. No introduction. No warning. Just 'the blue one or the black one'.

"Umm…the blue one's pretty, but wouldn't it be best if you interchange them when you need them? They look like they would have different pitches."

The brunet blinked, "I never thought about that."

"You…didn't?"

He grinned, "Nope!"

Upon closer inspection, she become aware that his skin was slightly blue-tinged, "You have an odd…complexion." She commented.

He instinctually reached for his face, before realizing she meant his skin color, "Oh, that's because I'm from Atlantica," he showed her his hand so she could see it had slightly webbed fingers, just up to the first joint. The edges of his ears were shaped faintly like fins. "I was a jester for various courts there." He grinned proudly, "One time I even preformed for the king!"

That would explain his outfit. Kairi walked to the front of the cell, "What's your name?"

"Oops! My apologies, it seems I have forgotten to introduce myself properly." He said, taking a courtly bow, "I am Myde, significant other of Braig, lord of Castle Oblivion." He took her hand and lightly kissed the back of it. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, milady."

"O-oh," Kairi blushed slightly, "nice to meet you too." He doesn't seem very Heartless-like, is he something else?

"Yay! New friend!" he bounced happily, "And a human one at that!" Okay, maybe he _was_ a Heartless, weird.

"Hey, do you know Ienzo?"

Myde grinned broadly, "Of course I do! He's my best friend!" she giggled, someone like Ienzo and someone like Myde, best friends? These Heartless really are strange. "Plus, he's like our geek or something. Total techie, can hack his way into Radiant Garden if he wanted; though he rather spend his time in a ginormous book than being around most people. Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's about something he did earlier, near the end of the time he was, err, visiting…"

"You mean stickin' his hand into your chest?"

She blinked, "A rather blunt way to put it, but yeah."

"Hmm, I think it was for two reasons, though I'll have to check with him." The brunet said taking a seat on the floor, Kairi doing the same. "We should really get some chairs in here." He observed absently, causing Kairi to laugh, before continuing, "One of them being that he wanted to see if touching your pure heart itself will cause anything to happen to him, since you touching his shoulder and chest didn't seem to have any effect. Kinda stupid in my opinion, but I think he was too eager to test it to think straight."

Myde snickered, "Which is strange because he's the straightest guy in the castle."

Kairi knew she probably shouldn't find that _nearly_ as funny as she did and tried to contain her giggles, failing miserably. No wonder he was once a court jester, with the way he times his jokes.

Myde pumped his fist, "Oh yeah! Still got it!"

"So what's the second reason?"

He scratched the top of his head, making his hat's bells jingle, "Well, I think it was because he didn't want you to trust us, not even him."

She furrowed her eyebrows, "Why not?"

"I can definitely understand where he's coming from; unlike me, not everyone here wants to be your friend. Let me tell ya, you're kinda lucky, since you're a girl and all."

"What the fate makes you say that?" Kairi asked with a tremendously heavy undertone of incredulity, thinking of the horrors of feminine hormones and puberty.

"Like I said before, Zoey's the only straight guy. As a girl, you have a distinctly lower chance of being harassed by any of the others. Though no guarantees with Lumaria; but if he does, I'm positive it will be much less worse than if you were the opposite gender."

"'Lumaria'? Who's that? How many are there of you anyways?"

"Oh, 'bout five here, three at Disney Castle, eight in all; I can name them if ya want."

"Err, okay."

Myde grinned, then rubbed his hands together with a mischievous glint in his eye, "This is gonna be fun!" Kairi had a feeling she'd have to read between the lines for an accurate description. Well, at least with Myde it will be funny. "Okay, first off, Lumaria. He has this pinkish-brown hair; actually it's more like brownish-pink. He's the definition of 'flower power'."

Kairi giggled, "'Flower power', you say? Sounds fearsome." She said in mock seriousness.

"Hey! _You've_ never been tied to some random pole in the middle of Agrabah and left to rot for pis-ticking him off! If Zoey hadn't found me, I'd been a sun-dried jester! Hey~! Stop laughing, it isn't funny!" he said pouting and crossing his arms.

"Sorry, but most things you say are."

The former court jester brightened and his eyes seemed to sprinkle with happiness. He leaned forward excitedly, "You really think so?"

The redhead giggled, "Of course."

"Thank you! Anyways, next is Arlene. Zoey mentioned her, right?"

"In passing,"

"Then I'll elaborate; Arlene is from Olympus, you can't imagine the hel-heck we had to go through to get her. It's still a mystery how Zoey puts up with her; you saw what he's like, nearly goes into cardiac arrest if so much as a _little_ swear slips from a girl's lips. Then again, Arlene _does_ kinda look like the type to be overly rude." He nods thoughtfully, "Yes, that would explain why he about jumped from his snow-skin when you cursed."

"What do you mean?"

"You know, 'pretty mouth, dirty word'." Myde elaborated with a cheerful smile.

"'Pretty mouth…dirty word'?" she repeated faintly, then swiftly turning a deep, rich shade of the broad side of a barn.

He tilted his head, grinning broadly, "What? You thought Zoey was kidding when he said you were 'attractive in appearance'?"

"I thought he was just being annoying." She mumbled blushing, if possible, even more.


	6. The Informing

On the other side of the castle, Riku and Sora were just waking up. The brunet rubbed the back of his head in memory of the hit that had put him out of commission and kneaded the base of his spine, sore from leaning against the back wall of the two's joint cell.

Riku sat up in the bed he'd been laid on, dimly registering the irritation in the back of his mind at Sora having been put in an uncomfortable position on the ground while he got a mattress—no matter how small and bad its condition was—instead of Sora. He scowled as he massaged his throat, "I can't believe that Lea asshole actually strangled me! I thought that Axel guy was supposed to be _vaguely_ okay?"

"But, Riku, that wasn't Axel. It couldn't be; he doesn't look like him, not exactly."

The other teen nodded, "Yeah," he looked at Sora, "You said the Rould-Luxord person bled black?"

"Yeah…" Riku suddenly slumped down onto a bed, "You okay?"

"My mind is still kinda fuzzy from happened earlier." Plus his old injury from their battle with Xemnas had mysteriously started hurting again. Hadn't it healed when he stepped through the Door to Light? But Riku wasn't about to tell Sora about any of this and make him worry. Thus he had to keep a near constant mental effort to suppress the urge to massage it or cast a Cure, magic hadn't worked the first time with the injury and neither had potions. He rubbed his forehead, "Ugh! I felt like we should be getting something, but _what_?"

"Maybe…they look enough like those Organization losers for us to mistake them for two of their members. So…could they be somehow related to them?"

"That is correct, Kingdom Keybearer." The captives spun around to look towards the voice's origin. Across from the wall of bars at the front of the cell stood a man with platinum-blond hair and a clipboard held in his left arm, "We are their Heartless."

"Who are you?" Riku demanded, swiftly jumping up from his seat on the bed, having to pause for the most imperceptible moment to steady himself on his feet.

The man walked closer, "You may know my Nobody, Vexen was his name, I believe." He stopped a few feet from their prison, "But my name is Even."

"What is your connection to those Organization losers?" the older Keyblader asked with narrowed eyes.

"Nothing really," Even said flipping through the papers attached to the clipboard, "all my knowledge on them is taken from reports. Ienzo has the entirety of our information on that subject. And I'm **not** about to ask anything of him."

The teens exchanged slightly confused glances. The scientist seemed to have found what he'd been looking for, "Ah, here we are." He turned his attention back to them. Pulling a pen from a pocket of his pristine lab coat, he said, "You, the one with the yellow lapels, you're Riku, correct?"

The Keyblader nodded slowly, "Yeah, what's it to ya?"

Even sniffed, "How rude." Riku rolled his eyes and the blond continued, "I'm collecting data. Now tell me, Riku, wh-"

"Like hell I'm 'providing data' for any more of you! Vexen was your Nobody, you can't be much different!"

"Yeah, you might make another Repliku!" Riku shot a strange look at Sora upon hearing the brunet's words. Sora only laughed embarrassedly.

The Heartless blinked, "What in fate's name are you talking about?" he then muttered darkly, "Perfect, now I'll have to ask that impertinent brat for additional details."

— — — — — — —

Elsewhere, a certain gray-haired man was forcing a certain dark navy-haired young man to watch the proceedings of the events occurring in the prisons in a primitive yet effective manner.

"Braig! Get off of me! The edge of the console in digging into my stomach!"

"Sorry, Ienzo-dono, but you have to see this."

"I don't understand how watching Even harass the Keybladers could _possibly_ be important enough to warrant dragging me from my reading all the way to the surveillance room _on the complete opposite side of the castle_! Why do you think I was reading in that particular place? So this kind of thing wouldn't happen."

"You know I didn't pull you kickin' and screamin' here to spy on them. The other screen, Ienzo-dono."

"I thought we went over this long ago. I do _not_ wish to join you in your shameless ogling of Myde."

Braig facepalmed, "Either you are oblivious or in denial. As impossible as it seems, I think you're a little of both."

"What are you talking about?"

The man sighed exasperatedly, "This is ridiculous." He grabbed Ienzo's wrist, "Come on," he began to tow the scholar out from the room.

"Where are you taking me?"

"I'm swappin' you and Angelfish, and _you're_ going to have a heart-to-heart, or whatever, with toots."

"W-wait! Braig!"

— — — — — — —

The gray-haired man threw open the door leading to the prison cells and hauled his captive in. Myde and Kairi looked up them. "C'mon, Angelfish. Ienzo-dono has some bondin' to do." He spared a grin at the redhead, "Hey, toots."

Kairi blinked and Myde stood, dusting himself off, "You got it!" he smiled back at her before leaving, "Bye, milady!"

Braig tossed Ienzo in and said cheerfully before closing, and locking, the door, "Have fun you two!" He and Myde promptly raced towards the surveillance room, neither of them wanting to miss a moment of the Heartless and Keyblader's interaction.

The scholar winced at the door's closing echoing with finality. He slowly turned towards Kairi, glancing for somewhere to sit that distanced himself from the redhead, without making it look like he was avoiding her. "This place really needs some chairs." He commented absently.

This had been a feeble attempt to buy time for his decision; thus he was reasonably surprised when she answered back, "Your friend Myde said the same thing." When he only blinked, she continued, this time with a glare, "He also told me the reason why you pulled that damn stunt."

Ienzo flinched at the painfully nostalgic glower that mirrored the one he received upon his first appearance to the redhead, following her capture, "Princess…language…" he said in a small voice.

Kairi was _pissed_, that's for sure. "You let yourself get hurt to _test_ something?"

Ienzo blinked at her with an incredulous expression on his pale features. What?

"Do you think _anything_ through? Of course touching my heart would burn those skinny little fingers of yours! And you could have just fatedamn _told_ me to be careful!"

"Language, princess," the scholar said weakly, cowed by her concerned rage, "You really shouldn't speak like tha-"

"Don't tell me not to curse! I heard you spew all those lovely words when you stupidly _nearly burned your hand off_!"

Kairi was breathing heavily from exhorting all her righteous anger at once; she let out a long breath, "I just needed to get that out."

The scholar looked at her in shock, "Princess, were you…worried about me?"

"Of course I was." She replied as if there wasn't any other possible reaction their contact with each other could have produced.

"But…I am a Heartless, and you are a Princess of Heart. You should not waste your concern upon me; you should not even trust me!"

"I don't care! Plus, Myde told me you didn't try to trick me for malicious reasons. You did it to keep me from trusting any of the other Heartless." Kairi then gave the scholar a twisted smile, "And look how much good _that_ did me."

"You're lucky it was he that you decided to let down your guard around." He shook his head to clear it, "But I was not lying, you really are far too trusting, princess."

"Why are you so dead set against me not despising you?" she asked with an inflection of slightly annoyed puzzlement, "Do you not like me or something?"

He became somewhat flustered at this, "N-no, that's not it!"

Elsewhere, Myde and Braig exchanged glances.

"It's just, I'm a _Heartless_; I shall bring only harm upon you!"

The redhead crossed her arms, "Well, no matter how much you don't want it, I want to be your friend."

He let out a defeated sigh then smiled wryly, "Your knight and dark prince certainly won't be too thrilled to hear that."

"Speaking of them," Kairi said as he hesitantly sat down, "do you know how they're doing?"

Ienzo didn't answer immediately, searching for the right words, "I am not entirely sure, when I saw them on the surveillance screen, Even had just started 'collecting data' on your friends."

"Even, he's the one of the two Myde said to be 'wary of at all times'; the other one was Lumaria, I think."

Ienzo's face twisted into a highly distasteful expression, "Yes, though for very different reasons, I can assure you."

"Yeesh, judging from that look of yours, I hope I never meet them."

"As do I." a smile spread across his face, "What's ironic is that if you are ever unfortunate enough to encounter them, it's preferable that they both be in the same room with you than only one."

"Why?"

The Heartless snickered, "Because, princess, Lumaria would be hanging all over Even, in a very literal sense, no doubt; they'd both be too distracted to bother paying attention to you at all."

"You don't like either of them very much, do you?"

"Even and myself are none too fond of each other, that's for sure. Lumaria, well…" he scowled slightly, "he can read the atmosphere perfectly fine; he merely chooses to ignore it and just because he's got it for our dear scientist, does not mean he limits himself to pestering Even alone with his _antics_."

— — — — — — —

In the surveillance room, Myde was also scowling, "Don't remind me."

"Haha, sucks to be you!"

The brunet looked towards the communication line screen to see a smirking Arlene, and a grinning Lea sitting beside her. "What do you two want? You may not have realized this, but we're kinda doing somethin' important."

"Chill out, Aqua Jester, we just wanted to join in the fun."

"Yeah, I was told Sir Colorless has, quote, 'taken quite a shine to the Princess Keyblader'," Arlene added.

Braig grinned, "Toots nearly had a conniption, totally blew a gasket at Ienzo-dono for gettin' himself hurt in the process of trying to keep her from trustin' any of us, 'cluding him."

"I do not blame him," Rould said from behind Lea and Arlene, "with people like these two lurking about, everyone should be cautious."

Lea turned around in his chair, "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

Braig laughed, "But the kicker is that means they're concerned for each other's well-being. Toots even said that she was gonna be his friend, whether he liked it or not."

Lea blinked, "Seriously?"

"Zoey'll totally get the hots for her."

"Whoa there, Angelfish, don't jump to conclusions now! They just met!"

"I'm not sayin' he's got the hots for her _now_; just that he will eventually."

"Maybe…"

"No, I think Aqua Jester's on to somethin'. I mean, look at 'em, Shorty was doing his best to keep a distance from her and she was doing her best to pull him back."

Rould blinked and stared stunned at his friend, "Lea…that was rather insightful of you. Are you sure you are who you say you are?"

"Oh, haha, very funny, crumpet."

"What, pray tell, are _five_ of you doing?"

"Ah, Evey! How are ya? Did you collect a lot of data?"

"Oh shut up, Lea."

"Uh-woo-woo!" Arlene and Lea chorused, "Evey's grumpy!-"

Even pressed the button that disconnected them from Disney Castle.

He turned to Braig and Myde, "This may have slipped your minds in your excitement involving the female Keyblader, but the prisoners both complained of hunger. Though it might have been merely to force me out of their presence, I do not believe the Kingdom Keybearer can create such a marked stomach growl on command and the captives are currently less useful starved to death."

Myde rubbed the back of his head, "Oh yeah…" he paused, his eyes widening, "Wait, what do you mean '_currently_'?"

"We'll get right on it!" Braig assured smiling mischievously, and with that the gray-haired man left the room, his boyfriend following after.


	7. Names

Ienzo and Kairi turned towards the door when they heard the great creak it made upon opening.

"Hel~lo, toots! Brought ya somethin'," Braig said walking in with two plates of food balanced in each hand.

"Zoey too!" Myde added, dragging a load of chairs behind him, "Look! Chairs!"

Kairi blinked, "Umm, what?"

Ienzo looked in slight disquiet at the food balanced in the two hands, "Why are there four plates?"

The gray-haired man grinned, "Why else? Me and Angelfish are gonna be dining with you and toots."

Kairi scowled faintly, "'Toots'? Which one of you are you anyways?"

"Yeah, I guess I didn't really introduce myself last time." He said heading towards where the other two were seated. "I'm Braig, lord of Castle Oblivion."

She lifted an eyebrow, "Am I supposed to be impressed enough to let it slide you were the one who put me in a cage and call me 'toots'?"

The gray-haired man laughed, "Sorry, but it was Even's idea to capture you, not mine. But I like your spunk, toots." He set the three of the plates down on the ground by Ienzo, grabbed the more plush of the four chairs Myde had lugged in, and towed it over to the cell door.

To Kairi's astonishment, he unlocked the door then opened it. Braig then pushed the chair in, set the food down on the cushion, closed the door, locked it, and strolled back over to where Ienzo and Myde were. Kairi opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it, shaking her head. These were the strangest Heartless. They probably knew she wasn't stupid enough to attempt escape with all three of them here, but still.

She sighed and dragged her chair to the place she usually sat. Picking up the plate, she sat down and watched their endeavor to fit three individual chairs of distinctly different designs into an area that would definitely not allow this.

"You know, you could have just gotten similar chairs."

"But where's the fun in that? Plus we have to cater to the personal preferences of the seats' occupants. That's why Ienzo-dono has a chair from the library."

"Really?" the scholar said with an eyebrow raised, "I was under the impression you just grabbed the closest thing. I'm actually surprised you didn't come in here pulling a couple of footstools behind you."

"'Cept with you, milady, we didn't know what kind of chair you liked." Myde said taking a bite of food, "So we just used the most comfortable one that a single person could carry by themselves." He finished, having yet to swallow.

"Myde,"

"Yeah Zoey?"

"Masticate before you articulate."

The brunet gave his friend a dumb look, "Huh?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Angelfish."

"Oh…" this caused the redhead to giggle; Myde swallowed before continuing, "Anyways, _I_ wanted the swirly chair in the surveillance room, but Even said if I did take it, he'd cast-err, do really mean stuff to me." He risked a quick glance towards Ienzo, "Plus, it was bolted to the floor, so it would be hard to sneak in to get it quickly."

"That was good." Kairi said as she passed her empty plate through the bars, "Who made it?"

"Dear luck, princess, you eat fast."

Braig grinned, "That would be me, toots. Betcha didn't expect a guy like me to be a cook."

"Pretty much, yeah." She answered.

The gray-haired Heartless laughed. "I'm multitalented, chef and head of our little band of Heartless."

"Some name." the redhead commented drily.

He shrugged, "What can I say? We never got around to it. Plus, what would we name it?"

"Ooh, I know! Maybe…The Only Straight People Here Are Zoey And Maybe Rould Club!" Myde offered excitedly.

Kairi made a mental note to ask who Rould was later.

"Too long, Angelfish. How 'bout Braig's Brig?"

"How 'bout not?" Ienzo said flatly.

"Make it Myde's Minstrels!"

"Not a chance, Angelfish. What about Kairi's Crew? I'm sure Ienzo-dono will _love_ that."

The scholar blushed dark gray, "S-shut up!"

"Sorry guys, that's already taken. How does The Darkened Hearts sound?"

"Kinda morbid, and like a garage band name."

"You got me there."

"What of the name Organization VIII?"

"No. Just, no."

"My apologies, but I could not resist, princess." Ienzo said with a roguish smile.

"Yeah, yeah. Maybe you should call yourselves Those Of The Belated Furnishing."

"It's undoubtedly fitting, but it's lacking that certain ring to it."

"Ienzo-dono's right, let's make it something like The Ones Who Stole Kairi's Crew."

"That does not seem exactly right, but I think you're on to something, perhaps Royalty's Captors?"

"No, the Princess Snatchers!" Myde said dramatically.

"I like that one, Angelfish."

"I don't."

"Really? I'm quite fond of it, actually."

"It only applies to me you know, your earlier 'Royalty's Captors' was more accurate."

"Well then, how do you like the sound of The Keyblader Kidnapers, toots?"

Kairi sighed exasperatedly, "Forget it. By the way, what did you mean earlier by 'Ienzo-dono has some bondin' to do.'?"

"I was wondering the same thing. I mean, you _did_ leave me at the mercy of a woman scorned."

"Well, I won't _exactly_ call it that…"

"It was close enough, Braig."

Kairi blushed slightly, "Yeah, sorry about that. I kinda lost my temper, didn't I?"

"'_Kinda_'? Milady, I'll have to disagree. You were absolutely _pissed_."

"Myde…"

"Oh right, don't curse in front of a lady, my bad."

"You know, Braig, you never answered my question about Ienzo 'bondin''."

"Indeed."

Myde exchanged glances with his boyfriend, "Are they oblivious to everything pertaining to that?"

The castle lord shook his head, "I just don't know, Angelfish, I just don't know."

"Oh, just tell us already!"

Braig grinned and picked up his and Myde's now empty plates, standing to leave, "Ya know, Angelfish, let's have them figure it out for themselves."

"Yes, let's." the brunet said grabbing Ienzo's plate and also standing.

"W-wait! What do you mean?" the young man called at their retreating backs. He was answered only with snickers.

— — — — — — —

Sora glanced concernedly at Riku; they had spent what felt like forever dodging Even's questions with ambiguous responses, and now…and now Riku frankly looked like hell. Sitting on the bed and rubbing his face with his hands, he seemed tired, even vulnerable. And it worried Sora.

"Hey Riku, you okay?" he asked gently.

The older teen jerked slightly as if he hadn't been fully in touch with reality, "Oh…yeah, I'm fine." He replied wearily.

Now that Sora could see all of his face, Riku looked even more fatigued. His friend had taken it upon himself to answer all of the scientist's questions; not wanting Sora to suffer inquiry. He'd even been standing between the brunet and the man, as if providing some physical barrier would protect the younger Keyblader from Even.

Footsteps could be heard, but they didn't sound like the platinum-blond's measured strides, they seemed more relaxed and _exuded_ confidence. The source soon arrived in front of their cell, revealing itself to be a smirking man with pinkish-brown hair, though it was more like brownish-pink. "Well, hello Keybladers, how are you?"

"Who the hell are you?" Riku said irritably.

The man's smirk widened, "Temper, temper, silver-haired one, you look in no condition to fight. Or even stand for too long."

"Answer the question."

"My name is Lumaria. You should really learn some manners, my dear _Ri_~_ku_." The older teen sneered at how the man had drawn out his name. "Especially when _I'm_ the one who has you and darling Sora's dinner." He pointed out showing the Keybladers the plates of food he balanced in one hand.

Riku grit his teeth but said nothing, only glaring. Lumaria's smirk turned patronizing, "Good boy."

The silver-haired teen subconsciously flexed his fingers, itching to beat the man to a bloody pulp. He told himself to not be goaded, that wrath leads to darkness and rage will get him nowhere. No matter how good it would feel to-

Fatedamnit! Stop thinking about that, you idiot! That's only going to make you fall into darkness. _Again_.Riku took a deep breath, reminded himself Sora was present, and said, "Fine, give us our food, _please_."

"That's better."

Vines suddenly shot out to wrap around both the teens' arms but Riku was the only one of the two whose feet were also bound. "What the luck did you do?"

Lumaria smiled wickedly and causally unlocked the cell door; letting it swing open, he approached the silver-haired prisoner, "We can't have you two attacking me," He set their dinners down on the bed next to its fruitlessly struggling occupant, "or escaping," He said running his fingers down Riku's cheek, gently pushing up his captive's face, "can we now?"

He was answered only with a ferocious glower. The man gave one last superior smirk as he patted Riku's head before exiting the cell and locking it back. Lumaria snapped his fingers and the vines released them, "Someone will come to pick up your plates in the morning." He said as he began walking away, "It's getting rather late; you might want to figure out the sleeping arrangements." Then he was gone.

Sora and Riku looked each other, both realizing what Lumaria had meant.

There was only one bed.


	8. Night

"Hey, it must be getting kinda late; I'm starting to get," Kairi yawned, "tired. You said they can hear and see us on the surveillance, right."

"Indeed."

"Then I hope they don't think I can stay up much longer. My bed has sheets, but not a blanket."

Ienzo tilted his head, "Really? I thought I told him to put one on there. Of course this Lumaria we are speaking of, so I suppose it is understandable."

She sighed, "Figur-"

The door opened and Braig entered dramatically, "Hel~lo, toots! Brought ya somethin'," he said with fluffy folded bed covers in his right hand.

"That's the second time in a row you're entered the room like that, greeting and all." Kairi pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah; here's your bed covers," he had to unfold it a bit to fit it through the bars.

"Thanks; now if you would be as kind as to leave so I can get some sleep, it would much appreciated."

"Whatever," Braig yawned, revealing exhaustion as the cause for his sudden somewhat lackluster behavior, "say goodnight, Ienzo-dono, there's a bed callin' my name."

"See you tomorrow, princess." She waved them away and the two exited.

— — — — — — —

Outside, Braig gave Ienzo a strange look as he trudged along towards his room, "How the hell are you not tired?"

"Habit."

"If you say so…" the gray-haired man stopped in front of his door, "'Night, Ienzo-dono." He said before going in and closing the door.

The scholar had only made it halfway to the library before he was stopped by Lumaria.

"Can you go down and check on darling Sora and dear Riku?"

"Why? Can't you?" Ienzo asked pushing away the hand trailing down his cheek.

The man twisted his hand to capture the scholar's wrist. He pulled Ienzo towards him, "Because I don't want to. And I wish to go to bed at a decent hour."

"Fine," the scholar growled, "I do not currently possess the patience necessary for putting up with your antics. If you release me, then I shall do what you request."

Lumaria released him with a pleasant smile, "That's all I ask."

"Just leave."

"As you wish, Ienzo."

— — — — — — —

Riku sat in the corner of the dark cell, staring out at the moon that shone through the window on the wall across from their cell, making his pale skin seem to almost glow. He had forced Sora to take the blanket-less bed, with the excuse of taking turns every night.

He'll figure out a loophole to that in the morning.

Right now, he's going to think up a plan of escape or fall asleep trying. He turned his gaze absently towards the plates on the ground. They didn't appear very breakable and Riku wasn't going to waste his energy attempting to find out. He sighed, closing his eyes.

A few minutes later, Riku felt himself drifting into slumber; so he didn't hear the lock click open. However, he _did_ hear the door's creak, and his eyes flew open. He shot to his feet at the lock's second click, his head spinning for a moment from standing too quickly. He could vaguely make out an approaching form; in the poor lighting of the moon, all that was visible was glowing white skin and dark hair covering the left side of a face.

"Greetings, Dark Prince Riku."

The Keyblader's mind was still hazy, having yet to recover from his almost-sleep. So when he heard that voice that sounded close-but-not-exactly and saw the nebulous outline that appeared almost-but-not-quite, he heard and saw something very different and very familiar. "Zexion? How are you still alive?"

"You are mistaken, your highness, I am not he."

Neither noticed the bright yellow eyes that had slowly opened in the shadows on the other side of the night-blackened cell.

"Don't lie to me." Riku growled, fatigue, haunting memories, and concern for the younger Keyblader clouded his reasoning as he latched onto Ienzo's throat with his right hand, "Did you come to torment Sora like you did to me?"

Those same glowing yellow eyes began to circle around the small cell then stopped behind the unaware Riku.

The young man struggled in the silver-haired teen's grip, desperately writhing for air. The young man clawed and tore at Riku's arm in attempt to get free, his sharply pointed fingers leaving long scratches down the Keyblader's right arm.

Then Ienzo's eyes flashed gold.

Riku's own eyes widened upon recognizing the occurrence and seeing the scholar's glowing bone-white hand shoot towards his chest.

Okay, maybe this wasn't Zexion.

The silver-haired teen released his captive right as the Heartless's fingertips came picometers from brushing his chest.

Ienzo stumbled back, catching his breath. Only to have it knocked out of him when he was violently tackled to the ground, landing roughly on the plates and causing shattered pieces to scatter across the stone floor, a few pressing against his back.

The Heartless looked up at the one pinning him to the ground, his assailant had raised a clawed hand that seemed to be made of the shadows themselves above its head. The scholar's eyes widened when he identified who his attacker truly was as the hand sped downward, aimed to slash open Ienzo's face and neck. He closed his eyes in preparation for the no doubt fatal blow.

"Sora?"

Ienzo hesitantly opened his eyes to see the claws had stopped mere centimeters from his head, halted by the dark prince's voice. It seemed he had been correct; the knight's shining armor had a bit of tarnish to it.

The silver-haired teen vaguely recalled a mention of Sora's AntiForm; honestly, Riku had tried to block it from his memory as it reminded him of his completely selfish and incredibly stupid actions. It had been something about Anti-Sora being more animalistic, acting on more basic feelings and instincts.

He'd been told that Aerith had once said Sora seemed more innocent when he entered AntiForm, almost like a child who doesn't know the difference between right and wrong. Riku had passed it off as nothing at the time, in hopes that ignoring the problem will make it go away; but now…

The Sora-shaped shadow being tilted his head in curiosity at the silver-haired one, why had he said that unfamiliar word? Oh, that must be the name he had been given. "Ri…ku?" he said slowly, carefully forming the word.

The elder Keyblader blinked, that's the first he's heard of Anti-Sora speaking. In fact, he'd been told that Sora became mute when he entered this form. "Hey Sora, could you get off him? He's not who I thought he was." Ienzo wisely chose to resist the deep temptation to comment on this statement.

Anti-Sora looked confusedly at…Riku? Yes, he was sure that was the silver-haired one was called. But why was Riku stopping him? The bone-colored one he held down was a darkness thing; what had the pink-clothed one named them? "But, Heart…less." He said, attempting to talk to Riku with his newfound broken vocabulary.

Anti-Sora didn't remember the bone-colored one being a, what was it? An ally? A companion? No, it was friend. Yes, he was certain that was what it's called. Riku, the pink-clothed one, Not-Squall, and the other friend ones; the pretty-hearted one, her name was Kai…ri, right? All the friend ones, they were His.

The bone-colored one has a bunch of darkness; darkness is not good, darkness did bad things. If a darkness-tainted one is not His, then the darkness-tainted one must be a darkness thing. Darkness things try to hurt His, so the darkness things have to go away. The bone-colored one is not His. Why was Riku telling him not to make this darkness thing go away? The bone-colored one even attacked Riku.

Anti-Sora then noticed that Riku's arm was bleeding really badly. Deciding the other teen's wellbeing ranked higher than killing the Heartless, he approached Riku on all fours.

Riku looked down at where Anti-Sora had stopped by his feet and tugged on the bottom of his shirt, "Riku."

Taking this as a request to sit down, the Keyblader lower himself to the ground. "What is it, Sor-uh!" Riku started turning absolutely red as Anti-Sora began _licking_ the scratches on his arms.

Ienzo propped himself up on his elbows, "Surely you didn't expect anything less from a being that is, behavior wise, very much a Heartless, your highness. This is how the more sentient ones act when the ones they see as allies are injured." He glanced at the blushing teen's arm, "Apparently it works on you just as well as on other Heartless."

Indeed, right before his eyes, Riku's wounds were slowly closing up. Pity he was too busy trying to keep himself from completely dying of embarrassment to fully appreciate it. Good thing that Ienzo couldn't laugh or mock him for fear of recapturing Anti-Sora's attention. That didn't stop the scholar from silently snickering at his expense though.

Unfortunately, Anti-Sora had apparently finished 'healing' Riku and had turned his attention to Ienzo. He stalked towards him on all fours, causing apprehension to slowly creep into the scholar's eyes. Confusion gradually came to be in Riku's own eyes when Anti-Sora leaned in to trail his tongue across where Riku's fingernails had broken the skin on Ienzo's neck.

"Is he healing you too?" The silver-haired teen asked slowly.

The Heartless winced, "No," Ienzo answered moving his head away from Anti-Sora, "he's _tasting_ me."

"_Why_?"

"To assess my threat level, in case I'm more dangerous than I led you to believe."

Riku raised an eyebrow, "If you're not a threat, why are you worried?"

The scholar glared at him, "In case you did not previously notice, your knight's now razor-sharp teeth are glazing my _jugular_, dark prince."

Anti-Sora stopped and sniffed his captive's cheek. His face turned menacing and he snarled. The bone-colored one smelled like the vine-controlling darkness thing! Riku had thought the bone-colored one had come to tor…ment him. But what 'torment' mean? Was it like what Riku said the vine-controlling one did? So that meant the bone-colored one wanted to mo…lest him. That didn't sound very nice.

Anti-Sora pounced on top of Ienzo, roughly pinning the poor scholar to the ground "Heartless mean to Riku! Bone-colored one and vine-controlling one!"

"Don't group me with Lumaria!" His captive protested before he could stop himself.

Anti-Sora turned towards Riku and tilted his head, "Vine-controlling one molest Riku. Bone-colored one torment Riku. Torment and molest Heartless?" he said as if asking for permission.

Ienzo, despite the seemingly physical and conceptual impossibility of it, paled even whiter; especially upon realizing his fate now rested in the somewhat vindictive dark prince's hands. In the back of his mind he drily noted that this was probably the longest amount of time Anti-Sora had ever spoken.

Riku turned bright red. Even if he didn't understand the full meaning and implications of his words when in AntiForm, Riku still couldn't believe Sora was asking him if he should do _that_.

"Erm, it was a misunderstanding. He never tormented me; it was someone else who looked like him."

"But, Riku…Heartless smell like vine-controlling one."

"He does? Well that changes things…"

Ienzo's eyes widened, this wasn't good. "H-hey! You know as well as I, your highness, just how much Lumaria is so fond of _touching_. You're not the only victim."

"True…"

"Just call off your knight."

"Fine; Sora, I don't think he means any harm. Even if he does, he's not really in any position to do much."

Anti-Sora nodded, "Okay." He said getting off of Ienzo, allowing the scholar to sit up.

Ienzo raised an eyebrow when Anti-Sora moved to curl up in Riku's lap, causing the older teen to blush, "He sure does like you." He observed as Kingdom Keybearer snuggled up against Riku, apparently having fallen asleep once more.

"Can we change the subject? Better yet, make you leave?"

"Actually, I wish to ask you a few questions, your highness. In particular, about the princess."

"I was wondering why you were calling me 'dark prince'. Why are you so interested?"

Ienzo blushed slightly, though thankfully Riku couldn't tell in the dim lighting that the Heartless's face had turned a very light shade of gray, and cleared his throat, "I am merely curious as to how she broke through all the obstacles we set in front of her so easily. Despite what Braig and Myde might say." he muttered the last bit.

Riku gave him a careful look before answering, apparently not have heard the mumbled addition, "She said she took up fencing lessons soon after the worlds were restored, before people began to forget about what happened. She liked it enough to continue even after she lost her memory. Apparently she's a natural because she beat the crap outta the people on the mainland. Of course she demanded actual sword lessons the moment we got back."

Sora shifted in the elder Keyblader's lap and let out a soft moan, "Riku…"

Ienzo struggled to suppress his snickers as he said, "I believe I shall spare you the suffering of having to address the inquiry of what your dear knight is dreaming about and request you to resume your explanation of the princess's abilities."

Riku glared at the Heartless, pointedly ignoring the vibrant blush adorning his cheeks, before continuing, "Kairi's far better at magic than us, though we think it's because she's a Princess of Heart. She's also faster and more agile, but that's kinda to be expected seeing as she's a girl and weighs way less than us. That's probably why she's better at clearing out the hordes that the really tough Heartless summon to deter us so me and Sora can take down the big guy. You should have seen how fast we beat a Darkside like that."

Ienzo's eyebrows raised slightly, Darkside, eh? He may just have to inquire further into this matter with the princess herself. "You obviously think very highly of her."

"Kairi's our warrior princess," Riku said shrugging, "We also summarized most everything about our, quote, 'adventures' so she knows all about Heartless."

"If that was aimed as a jab, consider me unfazed, your highness."

Sora shifted in Riku's lap again and the older Keyblader absentmindedly stroked his friend's soft brown hair. It was his fault Sora even had an AntiForm, he'd allowed himself to be seduced by the darkness and used by Ansem—or Xehanort or whoever the hell he was—in the bastard's attempt at destroying all worlds.

Worse, he found himself being tempted once more. He probably could easily use his darkness to break free. But what if Ansem wasn't completely gone? After all, there seemed something strange about this castle. His old injury he acquired, courtesy of Xemnas, while protecting Sora was hurting once more. Plus Sora shouldn't have activated his AntiForm; Riku had absolutely no idea what could possibly cause that to happen—after Roxas had combined with Sora at the Alter of Naught, to Riku's knowledge, the AntiForm had never shown up again.

Not to mention his oddly fierce aggression towards Ienzo. Riku's never that belligerent, not unless he's encaged within darkness's unyielding prison.

He'll just have to try more than ever to keep the darkness at bay. He will _not_ let it control him once more.

He looked down at Sora. But this castle…

Riku turned his attention to the Heartless, "Where are we anyways?"

"Why, we're in a dungeon, your highness."

The teen scowled, "Cut the crap, Ienzo, you know what I mean. Disney Castle doesn't have dungeons."

The scholar snickered, "We're at Castle Oblivion-"

He suddenly stiffened, looking very much unsettled, "Riku," he began quietly, causing apprehension to slowly grow within the Keyblader, Ienzo had never addressed him by his name and _especially_ not in such an unnerved way, "I never told you what my name was."

"Th-that Even guy said it one time." Riku said quickly, attempting to convince himself more than Ienzo.

"I know, but he only mentioned it in passing, never giving hint of any of my characteristics."

"I-I…" Riku was literally starting to get scared. He knew what this meant; even worse was that he knew _why_ he'd known Ienzo's name. Because Ienzo had once been an apprentice to the person DiZ had been. And so had Xehanort. Somehow he'd-

"I must investigate this matter as soon as possible." Ienzo said, derailing Riku's train of thought as he stood and brushed himself off. After collecting the broken shards of the shattered plate he looked at the cell door, then at the other two. "Now what to do…" he murmured under his breath.

"Are you leaving yet? Can't you just summon up some dark portal or something?"

Ienzo gave him a mysterious smile, "This is not the same Castle Oblivion you've come to know." And with that, he slipped out the door.

Riku only realized once the Heartless was gone, that Ienzo had used his confusion as a distraction to get away without an escape attempt. "I don't know; it seems just as infuriating as last time." He muttered darkly.


	9. Library Procedures

Ienzo entered his library and picked up the rest of the un-copied material from the shelf. He opened them and summoned his colossal lexicon. He then held his right hand palm-down over them and made a sweeping motion towards his mountainous lexicon. The words duplicated themselves then settled onto the humongous lexicon's pages.

He was silent for a moment before stating, "Damn. I should have thought of that earlier."

He scribbled down what happened inside the cell and with a sigh, he settled down in a chair and proceeded to attempt to find out why Riku hated his Nobody so much.

After shooing away a newly awoken Myde by telling him that he was busy and causing the jester to pout before searching for entertainment elsewhere, he was beginning to get a fairly good idea on what occurred during Riku's encounters with Zexion, as well as finding out that both he and his Nobody both shared mutual general contempt for the halves of what was once the Somebody Even, when one of the aforementioned halves entered the room.

Ienzo looked up from his study—huh, the sun's about to rise—as Even strode in with a clipboard under one arm, "What is going on here, Ienzo? I want an explanation."

"Nice to see you too, Even."

Even ignored the dry reply he received and continued, "I've not had the chance to ask you, what with Lumaria prowling about and everything, but those two Keybladers, the male ones,"

"Yes, it is generally assumed to be Riku and Sora when the term 'those two Keybladers' is used."

Even again ignored Ienzo and his accompanied interjection, "said something that has regretfully forced me to request your insight upon."

A very pleased smirk unfurled across Ienzo's face. "It must have _really_ hurt to say that."

"Beyond all imagination."

"I thought so. So what can this 'impertinent brat' do for you?"

Even's eyes narrowed slightly at the quote before saying, "Tell me what is meant by the Kingdom Keybearer's mentioning of 'another Repliku'."

"I assume by 'Repliku', he is referring to the Riku Replica created by Vexen, your astute Nobody. Nasty thing, it was; ten times the annoying little shit _I'll_ ever be."

"I find this hard to believe." However Even was still somewhat taken off-guard by the scholar's uncharacteristically coarse language, "So I take it this Replica wasn't on the best of terms with your Nobody."

"Correct, he was arrogant but worst of all, impressionable to the point of being easily manipulated. As for why the Kingdom Keybearer might have said it, Vexen presumably created it from information he gathered through observing Riku."

"Then how in the worlds am I going to conduct my research?"

"I believe as long as you assure them you are not going to create a copy of one or both of them, maybe bringing someone more trustworthy in appearance to confirm so, you should be fine. I also do not advise following in the footsteps of your Nobody. That Replica was nothing but trouble for everyone except perhaps the one called Axel who made full destructive use of the Replica, the Nobody of whom," Ienzo's eye twitched, "I shall attempt to bear no grudge. You should do the same as he is merely the Heartless, not the perpetrator of your murder."

Even had a feeling Ienzo was telling himself this as well as informing him. Nevertheless, he stored away the name for future analysis.

The scholar knew he was being vindictive, but Lea _had_ tried to re-install his game and Ienzo found him extremely annoying to begin with.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Yes," Even briefly glaring, "stop spying on my interrogations."

With that the blond turned and left, leaving Ienzo to let out a few snickers as he turned his attention back to his sizeable lexicon, "You always were perceptive, Even."

— — — — — — —

"What. The. Freakin'. Hell."

Even sniffed, "Such crude language from a lady; no better than Arlene." He had come here to see what had been so fascinating to the brat, but he was now thoroughly regretting his decision.

"The sun has barely even _crested_ the horizon. What do you expect? Don't Heartless need sleep too? Or did I imagine last night's yawns from Braig?"

"I take it you're not a morning person."

Kairi glared wrathfully at him, she'd been rudely awaken by what she could only assume was the fabled scientist of The Keyblader Kidnappers—Even. She rubbed her eyes, "What time is it, anyways? No, better yet, why are you here?"

"I am collecting information on you and the other Keybladers, now if you would just answ-"

"You're not going to make another Repliku, are you?"

Even took a deep breath and slowly released it, "No. I am not going to make a copy of any of you. Ask the brat if you don't believe me."

"Whatever you say, Evey."

"How did you-?" he sputtered in frustration, "Ugh! Forget it, I'll come back later."

As he exited the door with a brisk stride, Kairi flopped back onto the bed, wondering if she if it was possible for her to fall back asleep. Well might as well try. With that she pulled the covers over her face and attempted to think boring, tiring, and sleepy thoughts, like school and the adults constant nagging about where they had disappeared to for weeks/months/years/fifteen minutes past curfew.

— — — — — — —

Ienzo was literally rising from his chair when another, even more unwelcome, guest made its presence known.

He closed his eyes, asking all matters of luck and fate to grant him patience, and took a deep breath before saying as he gathered up his books, "Yes, what is it, Lumaria?"

"I was just wondering where Even might have gone to. He wasn't in his beloved surveillance room." Lumaria said with his customary relaxed smirk as he leaned against the doorframe, fortunately keeping his distance, unfortunately blocking the exit.

"So then he finally realized the potential severe optical damage that poorly-lit room possessed; good for him." Ienzo replied. However it wasn't for Even's sake that he concealed the truth, Ienzo merely wished to make the life of the infuriating man in front of him as difficult as he possibly could. "Though why you are speaking to me about his probable location is beyond me." He added as he approached the entrance with the clear intention of leaving the room.

Lumaria ignored the obvious silent command to move as he began to nonchalantly examine his fingernails, "Well, the only place he could have been is with you since I've checked everywhere except the dungeons and a quick peek at the screens revealed him to not be with darling Sora and his rabid silver-haired guard-hound."

Ienzo narrowed his eyes slightly but was quickly distracted by Lumaria's next words.

"Speaking of which," the man said turning his attention back onto Ienzo and moving slightly to allow the scholar passage through the doorway, "I don't believe they have been warned of your dear friend Myde being the Heartless of a Nobody darling Sora had interaction with; and poor Myde hasn't been told either, has he?"

Ienzo's eyes widened and he sprinted off down the hall; though he doubted the Keybladers would attack Myde, Demyx sounded a great deal unlike Myde and his never-ending energy.

Lumaria chuckled and smoothly pushed himself off of the doorframe. As he began leisurely down a different corridor, a quite unsettling smile formed on his lips, "Time to finally pay the princess a little early morning visit."


	10. Morning

Riku shifted and slowly opened his eyes.

To see Sora's too cute face too close to Riku's own.

In his sleepiness, he did not note that this was because Sora was leaning over him, very nearly straddling Riku in doing so.

"Sora?" he asked groggily.

"Good morning, Riku!"

As he became more aware, the thought registered in his mind how odd their positions were considering Riku has always been the one on top, this was _immediately_ followed by the realization that this _wasn't_ one of the dreams he didn't deserve to have and it was the hard stone of a cell's floor they were on and not whatever the perverted side of his darkness chose as that particular night's setting. Luckily it was only dreams and not something worse that transpires when Riku's defenses were at their lowest.

Though this entire occurrence Riku had slowly grown redder and redder until his face was roughly the shade of Sora's old jumpsuit that's too small for him now and probably shows off Sora's-

Riku derailed that train of thought so fast the tracks were almost damaged. Almost.

He thanked all matters of luck and fate for their decision to be less indiscriminate on their treatment of everyone and showed the tiniest bit of favor to one of their believers by nobody else being present to make some com-

"Hi, y'all! I-err, I can come back later if you're busy right now."

-ment. Never mind…crap.

Riku scrambled away as quickly as he could, impossible as it seems, even redder, while Sora looked up to see a young man dressed in various shades of vibrant blue who was turned away with a blue-tinged hand covering the side of his face as if to block some indecent view; though what sight that may be completely eluded Sora.

He sat up, brushing himself off, "Hey, Riku, what do you think he means?"

"I-I have no idea, Sora. But whatever it is, it was most _defin_-ahem, he was probably mistaken."

"Sure it wasn't." Myde peeked out from behind his hand with a mischievous glitter in his eyes and a knowing smile that said '_Riku doth protest too much_'.

The Keyblader gave him a scowl Sora couldn't see as his back was to his friend. The brunet instead tilted head and squinted at Myde, "You look like Demyx." He stated as if coming to a conclusion after long deliberation. "Are you his Heartless?"

"Yep," the jester replied heading towards their cell, "my name's Myde. And you're-crap, I should have brought chairs." He interjected realizing he'd have to sit on the ground or lean against the wall before starting the sentence over, "And you're the bestest buddies of the one _my_ bestest buddy happens to like-like."

"Like-like?"

"As in _like_-like?" Riku asked incredulously.

"What other 'like-like' is there? So what's this 'Demyx' like, Zoey was _really_ vague on the details, like name only."

"Demyx was that Nobody you fought, right Sora? Wasn't he supposed to be really weak and kinda of a coward?"

"Yeah, the _first_ time. Sephiroth trying to gut me to steal ownership of the Keyblade was a cinch after that über-powered wolf in sheep's clothing laid me out! I used up my entire supply of anything with a _semblance_ healing ability I'd stockpiled for my attack on the jillion Heartless on that one battle alone! I nearly died!" Sora said on the very edge of flailing his arms in his zeal.

"You would think his sword of over-compensation would be enough for Sephiroth."

"Apparently it is, according to him 'Cloud possesses what he truly desires', but I can't imagine him ever using Cloud's broadsword. Well, not in a serious way, every time I do, I start laughing."

"Must have something to do with the hair." Myde said wisely.

"What does waist-length hair have to do with anything?"

Riku could think of two off the top of his head who had waist-length hair and probably thought closer along the lines of Sephiroth's thinking than Riku; however he settled on mentally wishing Cloud and Leon the best of luck, attempting to shove his past so far behind him it was in last millennium's garbage disposal, and quickly changing the subject before Myde could finish his next sentence.

"Oh, I'm not talking about the hair's _lengt_-"

"So who's this friend of yours that likes Kairi?" Riku interrupted.

"Yeah, is it that Zoey person you mentioned earlier?"

Riku thanked all matters of luck and fate that, even if they were indiscriminate on whom they were fickle assholes to, Sora was easily redirected from unsafe topics.

"You bet! Zoey _never_ becomes that open or nice to people that quickly."

"'Zoey'?" Riku's eyebrows drew together slightly, "Wait, by 'Zoey', do you mean-?"

Ienzo burst into the room, "Myde!"

"Zoey!" the jester returned happily.

Ienzo visibly relaxed, "Oh, you're okay. I thought Lumaria might have done something to you."

"Nope, I just came here because _someone_ said they were 'busy' and that I 'should find entertainment elsewhere', unquote." Myde said pouting.

Ienzo started towards them, "I'm sorry, Myde. I jus-"

"Okay, you're forgiven, pull up some rock." Myde said patting the ground next to him.

The Keybladers blinked but Ienzo only smiled and sat down next to him.

Sora crossed his arms and looked as though he was sizing Ienzo up. "So you're the one who likes Kairi."

"Yes, I do not see her as my enemy and I hope she shares my sentiments."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure she shares your sentiments."

Ienzo turned to look at Myde suspiciously, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Your friend says you _like_-like Kairi." Riku stated with narrowed eyes.

"Well, he is mistaken, your highness. There is no need to turn your no doubt infamous dark prince glare upon me."

"'Dark prince'?" Sora echoed.

"Yes, it's quite obvious, is it not? Kairi is the Princess of Heart, thus making Riku is the dark prince and you the knight in mostly shining armor."

"I'm the jester!" Myde interjected.

Riku raised an eyebrow, "Does that make you the servant or are you nobility?"

"What are you talking about? Zoey's the royal consort!"

"I am no such thing!"

"Suitor, then? Though I still think consort is _way_ more accurate. You act like it almost."

"Wait, 'mostly shining armor', what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, Sora, it means nothing. This is the Heartless of Zexion; half the stuff he says is probably made-up."

_Real subtle change of topic, Riku,_ Ienzo's eyeroll seemed to say, _I barely even noticed._ "I have a name, believe it or not." Ienzo said, aiding Riku anyways if only to not have the subject of Anti-Sora brought up.

"Then what is it?" Sora asked.

"Ienzo. And I am not merely 'the Heartless of Zexion', we have many dissimilarities; for instance, I-"

"-like Kairi." Riku cut in, "Stay on topic, consort."

"You do know what that word means, don't you?"

"Yes, I do," Riku replied crossing his arms, "and if what your friend here says is true, she likes you back to at least some degree." Riku gave Ienzo a piercing look and the scholar returned his gaze unflinchingly, "I am also able to distinguish the difference between you and Zexion. You have the potential to annoy me to no end if you wanted to, but Sora does too-"

"Hey!"

"-so that's somewhat irrelevant. Kairi has always been a fairly good judge of character, if she feels she can let her guard down near you, I can only assume it is safe for us to do so as well."

A smirk pulled at Ienzo's lips, "Is this you giving your blessing or have I stolen away the thoughts you reserve for your knight?"

Riku blushed, "S-Shut up!"

"Yeah! I'm his best friend and that's not gonna ever change!"

Riku inwardly flinched, he wasn't sure if he could live like that. Especially if he wanted to ever go to sleep. On second thought, make that if he wanted to ever join the world of the waking. Riku was honestly more worried about what he would do if he _didn't_ get any sleep; fatigue lowers defenses and Sora always looked so temptin-Riku _really_ needed to get started on demolishing those train of thought tracks of his.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Ienzo deadpanned, "I'm sure others are too."

"Speaking of which," Myde began as Riku shot a glare at Ienzo, "why exactly was Sora on top of Riku?"

"Oh, I think I might have fallen outta bed and I must have rolled onto him, I woke up like two seconds before Riku so that's why I was still on him. Sorry, 'bout that Riku."

"It's no problem." Riku inwardly congratulated himself on keeping his voice steady enough not to cause suspicion. Though apparently Sora was the only one deceived as Myde's eyes were glittering again and Ienzo was giving him the same smirk the Heartless had given Kairi when they first met—Riku wanted to smack it off his face _so_ badly. "Don't you have other things to do? Like hitting on Kairi or something."

"I don't hit on her."

"As long you don't try to seduce her or anything."

Both Sora and Ienzo blushed at this, "Riku!" "Your highness!"

Several things involving the phrase 'Princess of Heart', 'pure light', and a word beginning with 't' and ending with 'nt' flashed through Myde's mind that he could say but he chose to keep them to himself.

Riku snickered then looked curiously at Ienzo, "Your face, it's gray."

"That's 'cause Zoey's blushing!"

Sorry everyone (though a big thank you to anonymous and your regular reviews), but this is basically all I have and it's not lookin' as though there'll be more anytime soon.

Though if there is anything, here are some previews (?) in no particular order:

"_Your majesty!" was the first thing Mickey heard upon waking up._

"_Why do you prefer to fight the small fry while his highness and your knight battle the main threat?"_

_She thought about the question for a moment, "It's kinda like why people love putting jigsaw puzzles together so much."_

"_Oh? How so?"_

"_Well, there's always that small feeling of accomplishment whenever the two pieces fit. It's sorta like that every time I finish off an enemy. Even the small ones."_

_Leon leaned down to take the letter from Pluto's mouth, "What do we have here?"_

_He opened it, eyes widening as he got further down the page._

_He ruffled the fur on the top of Pluto's head, "Good boy." He said hurriedly as he began running in search of the Keybladers._


End file.
